Maria Pagan, the nominee to lead the U.S. mission at the World Trade Organization, told Senate Finance Committee members that reforming the appellate body is a top priority because "Appellate Body overreaching has shielded China’s non-market practices and hurt the interest of U.S. workers and businesses." She said that appellate body rulings "undermined our ability to protect U.S. workers and businesses from those non-market practices."
Trade was barely touched on during the virtual meeting of President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Anna Ashton, vice president of government affairs for the U.S.-China Business Council. Ashton, who was speaking on a Nov. 23 Twitter panel hosted by Neysun Mahboubi, a research scholar at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Contemporary China, said that follows a pattern in the administration. She said that "they are unabashedly reframing the relationship… as a competitive one," which makes her wonder where the commercial relationship fits in. The recent panel was reacting to the earlier video call (see 2111160004).
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she hears frequently from stakeholders about "market access restrictions, high tariffs, unpredictable regulatory requirements, and restrictive digital trade measures" in India, and said those are issues "where we need to make progress."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Sarah Bianchi stressed the importance of rapidly resolving trade concerns when they arise through the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and talked about the president's vision for a new economic framework in the Indo-Pacific when they talked with Korea's trade minister, Yeo Han-koo. They agreed to communicate better to support trade facilitation, and to deal with supply chain challenges, emerging technologies and digital trade. According to the U.S. summary of the visit, Tai talked about the challenge posed by market-distorting excess capacity in steel and aluminum. According to the Korea Herald, quoting the Korean trade ministry, Korea asked for the chance to change the tariff rate quotas it earlier agreed to on steel. "We once again delivered our stance and concerns regarding the Section 232 rules, and demanded that the two sides begin negotiations at an early date," the ministry said in a statement. Tai and Yeo also heard from industry representatives on supply chain resiliency and how to foster more sustainable trade.
The top trade officials in Japan, the U.S. and the European Union announced that they are restarting the trilateral discussions on how to address the challenges "posed by non-market policies and practices of third countries," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Nov. 17. They said they will meet on the margins of the World Trade Organization conference in Geneva. Former USTR Robert Lighthizer began these talks, which produced a statement (see 1901090063) that said they aimed to write text on disciplines for industrial subsidies to be considered at the WTO, and also that they were working on the outlines of new rules on forced technology transfers.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced that consultations have begun with Japan on Section 232 tariffs on Japanese steel and aluminum. They said that the solutions will be aimed at strengthening "our democratic alliance," and the statement says that Japan and the U.S. share "similar national security interests." Japan, Canada, the European Union and other longtime allies of the U.S. were insulted that the Section 232 tariffs, which purportedly are to protect national security, applied to their countries.
Ethiopia, the fifth-largest exporter of products covered by the African Growth and Opportunity Act, will be terminated from AGOA on Jan. 1, 2022, the administration announced, unless it takes "urgent action" to stop "gross violations" of human rights in the conflict in Northern Ethiopia.
Mexico, not satisfied with the results of consultations over U.S. interpretation of roll-up provisions under USMCA's auto rules of origin, is going to ask for a USMCA dispute panel to be formed, according to unnamed sources quoted by Reuters. The U.S. auto industry was taken by surprise by how rigidly the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative interpreted regional value in super-core auto parts (see 2106180027), and after lobbying Congress was fruitless, Mexico asked for consultations on the issue (see 2108230041) and Canada joined the complaint (see 2108300056).
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for the Western Hemisphere Daniel Watson and Andrés Cárdenas Muñoz, Colombia's vice minister of foreign trade, directed their customs and trade facilitation teams to have another discussion on lessons learned and future plans "especially with regard to the digitalization of customs procedures," according to a USTR readout of the Oct. 22 meeting.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking at a virtual trade ministers meeting of African Growth and Opportunity Act participants, said that while AGOA improved the export competitiveness of many African products and fostered regional integration, its utilization of it has been limited. She said at the Oct. 20 meeting: "Despite these successes, only a handful of countries have taken significant advantage of AGOA.