The Senate on May 8 confirmed Judith DelZoppo Pryor, Spencer Bachus and Kimberly Reed to the board of directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Pryor and Bachus will serve as board members and Reed will serve as the bank’s president. Pryor and Reed serve terms through Jan. 20, 2021; Bachus' term is through Jan. 20, 2023. The confirmations gave the bank enough directors for a quorum to approve transactions of more than $10 million (see 1905070009). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce praised the confirmations in a May 8 statement: “Their confirmation restores Ex-Im to full functionality and will allow the Bank to get back to its critical mission of supporting U.S. exporters.”

Canada and Colombia were removed from the priority watch list for intellectual property violations, and Tajikistan moved off the watch list, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's annual review of countries' policies on patents, trade secrets, counterfeits and piracy. Saudi Arabia was moved up to the priority watch list because of deteriorating conditions there, including "rampant satellite and online piracy," a USTR official said April 25.

The International Trade Commission estimated that by the sixth year after the new NAFTA's ratification, the U.S. economy would have 176,000 more jobs than it would have without the new revised trade deal. That's a 0.12 percent increase compared to the status quo.

The executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's U.S.-UK Business Council, said that even a customs union would be more complicated for U.S. exporters than the status quo. Marjorie Chorlins was speaking with reporters on a conference call April 17. "The amendment proposing a customs union came very close to passing," she said, in response to a question from Export Compliance Daily. But exactly what would be included in the customs union could vary -- it does in Norway and Turkey, she said.

It is unclear how China will enforce some of the regulations introduced in its new e-commerce law, according to an April 7 report published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, leaving some foreign companies and small businesses uncertain about selling products to China online. Some foreign department stores that previously shipped online sales directly to China have already switched to large Chinese e-commerce platforms that import through a Chinese distributor, according to the report. Others, the report said, “have pulled out of the Chinese market entirely.”

The European Union and the U.S. have not formally begun the trade talks first agreed to last July, as the 28-member bloc still does not have a mandate to negotiate. Given that, many observers are doubtful negotiations could make substantial progress this year.

The U.S. has "an immediate need" to secure lower agriculture tariffs for its producers because European, Canadian and Australian farmers are selling into Japan at lower tariffs than U.S. farmers can, said Wendy Cutler, the former lead negotiator for the U.S. in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canada and Australia are advantaged now because they stayed in the TPP. Japan also recently put into force an EU-Japan free trade agreement. Cutler, now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, spoke at a Washington International Trade Association program April 3 on the future of U.S.-Japan Trade.

Lawmakers rejected United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May’s European Union withdrawal deal for a third time, causing uncertainty about the future of Brexit. The deal was struck down 344-286 in a March 29 vote, on the same day the U.K. was originally scheduled to leave the EU. May had sent a letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk in March requesting a Brexit delay until July 30, but Tusk said the EU would grant a delay only if the U.K. Parliament adopted May’s withdrawal agreement when it voted for a third time (see 1903200068).

If the United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union in 17 days, it has a plan on what its tariff schedule will be, but John Dickerman, head of the Washington office of the Confederation of British Industries, said that there's no answer on who will be ready to take the manifest information from exporters the day after Brexit. "That's a huge challenge," he said.