Jacob Kopnick

Experts disagreed on the utility of the Trump administration approach to World Trade Organization reform, during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the topic, and senators on the left and right suggested that the negotiated trade rules disadvantage Americans.

As the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative weighs whether to remove any items from the Airbus retaliatory tariff list and replace them with other goods, or to hike tariffs on any goods now being taxed at an additional 25%, most trade groups are asking him to limit tariffs to aerospace, and spare what they import. The decision is due by Aug. 12.

Thousands of people who either work in the wine industry or who enjoy drinking imported wines wrote to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative between June 26 and July 26. In all, USTR received close to 30,000 comments on what to do about tariffs on European goods. USTR is considering changing the mix of products, either by putting products on the list that were spared last time, or by adding new products not considered last year. It's also considering increasing the 15% and 25% tariffs on EU goods (see 2006240017).

Former U.S. trade representatives Carla Hills, Susan Schwab and Michael Froman said the next director-general of the World Trade Organization will have an uphill climb to achieve changes they all believe are needed at the institution. The three spoke during a Washington International Trade Association webinar July 16. Froman said the fundamental problem is “a lack of global consensus around trade. And there’s a lack of political will to get things done.”

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative received close to 400 comments on the possibility of punishing Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom if they start collecting digital service taxes, as the countries have proposed. The USTR is also considering punishing the European Union, which is considering a unionwide DST.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative ought not to announce 10% tariffs on Canadian aluminum at the end of this week, just before the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement goes into force, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., told International Trade Today in an interview. The administration has not announced its intentions, but several outlets quoted unnamed sources saying the tariffs are coming if Canada doesn't agree to voluntary restrictions on its exports.

Any future Section 301 exclusion renewals will only last until the end of the year, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the House Ways and Means Committee as he testified June 17 about the administration's trade agenda, adding that “they will decide what happens after that.”

Reports that China would be slowing or stopping its purchases of soybeans because of U.S. action over Hong Kong (see 2006010044) are inaccurate, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said. Lighthizer, who was speaking to the Economic Club of New York, Washington and Chicago by video on June 4, said China made $185 million worth of U.S. soybean purchases since that story was published. He said that coverage of the trade agreement frequently focuses on the purchase promises and neglects the structural reforms that were pledged, but that both tracks have been going well in the three months since the deal went into effect. “You’ll know what the score is before too long,” he said.

Outsourcing wasn't about competitive advantage, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said during an interview with conservative lobbyist Matt Schlapp, in a video branded Conservative Political Action Conference/Live. He said that while the Trump administration believes in competitive advantage, classic economists “never thought of the notion they can create scale through economic nationalism and gain advantage over another country.”

The United States notified the World Trade Organization that it has fully complied with the WTO's findings in the Boeing subsidies dispute, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said May 6. The European Union and U.S. have been battling for 15 years over whose subsidies to their aircraft manufacturers distort trade. The WTO has said that both sides were in the wrong, and the U.S. currently has Section 301 tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European aircraft, food, apparel, linens, tools, wine and spirits in a WTO-sanctioned retaliation for past Airbus subsidies.