Panelists Optimistic Tariffs Will Be Avoided on DST, Section 232 Tariffs Will Be Lifted
A Republican congresswoman who has been the biggest critic of the Section 232 exclusion process told National Foreign Trade Council webinar listeners that, “I’m hoping for the best under this administration. We’ve suffered a lot under [Section] 232 and 301.” Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., added that “I can’t wait to see it start unraveling.” Walorski, who claimed Jan. 12 that “we were kind of in this battle” with President Donald Trump over the broadness of the China tariffs, voted against certifying Biden's Electoral College victory last week.
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Walorski, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, criticized Democrats for what she called “radical demands” to change the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, and said she would like to see GSP renewed early. She noted that its lapse is costing importers millions of dollars a month.
Former acting U.S. trade representative Demetrios Marantis, who was also on the NFTC panel on what to expect from President-elect Joe Biden's trade policy, said that Europe and the U.S. should be able to find common ground on China, digital trade and reinvigorating the World Trade Organization. “New administrations, regardless of where they’re coming from, provide a new opportunity to do something,” he said.
Toyota USA director of international public policy Leila Afas said it will be tricky to find a united front on China with Europe at the same time we are trying to stave off Digital Services Taxes. The USTR said this week that these taxes are discriminatory to American firms, and hurt U.S. commerce, but did not suggest any remedies, and did not impose tariffs on French handbags and cosmetics as a punishment for France's DST. “I think we were all quite surprised USTR did not move forward on France retaliatory tariffs,” she said. “By pushing that out … it really provides the space for the new administration to deal with that, and I think they’ll be looking for off-ramps.” But, she said, there may be an impasse at the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development that can't be bridged.
Walorski questioned whether Europe can help the U.S. confront Chinese economic abuses. “I don’t think they should be considered serious partners at all. President Biden, he can’t just go along to get along,” she said. “I think the EU has shown before on these thorny issues that they’re not very good on the topic of trade.”
Moderator Jenny Leonard, a trade reporter for Bloomberg News, asked Walorski about the prospects for trade-related legislation, such as giving Congress more say on Section 232 tariffs, or renewing Trade Promotion Authority. Walorski said she'll support 232 reform again, as she did in the previous Congress, but added that “it’s not clear whether the overall votes will be there.” She said she's optimistic about what Biden will do with the existing Section 232 tariffs. “I’m optimistic of where we’re heading in general,” she said. She also said she doesn't want TPA to lapse and that she hopes “we can have a good bipartisan discussion on TPA that doesn’t go sideways.”
Marantis, who now is a senior vice president for global government engagement at Visa, said he doesn't think it's worth it for the White House to expend the political capital to get TPA renewed. He said that if Congress wants to approve a United Kingdom trade deal, “they can get it done without TPA.”