Norway, one of the major suppliers of electric vehicle battery minerals to the U.S., hasn't gotten any encouragement from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative when its representatives have asked to negotiate a critical minerals agreement.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is one of the most powerful laws, "in what it's been able to achieve in such a short time," said Howard Mendelsohn, chief client officer for Kharon, a risk intelligence service provider. It was implemented so quickly that almost $2 billion worth of imports has been detained, at least temporarily.
The EU's top trade official, Valdis Dombrovskis, said EU and U.S. negotiators haven't given up on their Oct. 31 deadline to address both non-market overcapacity in steel and aluminum and ways to privilege trade in cleaner metals.
Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., one of the less hawkish members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, bemoaned the fact that the original title of the committee, which talked about strategic competition, has been forgotten.
A nonprofit organization that fights illicit networks that threaten global peace and security, C4ADS, is recommending that the Department of Homeland Security’s interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force should place Xinjiang Nonferrous Metal Industry Group and its subsidiaries on the UFLPA entity list, as the group laid out evidence that the mines use labor transfers of Turkic minorities in Xinjiang province.
Panelists and a senior administrative official acknowledged that the Inflation Reduction Act agitated Japanese, South Korean and European allies who saw its tax provisions as protectionist, but the politics made it the only way to ramp up U.S. climate ambition, several said.
Trade lawyers and importers are wondering how the anti-stockpiling element of a two-year pause on trade remedy circumvention deposits will be enforced.
With the deadline to reach a deal on trade in steel and aluminum with the EU three weeks away, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is talking less about the commitment to reach a deal by the end of the month, and more about "progress."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he spoke candidly with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a trip to Shanghai, saying China needs to stop unfair treatment of U.S. firms with operations in China.
Canada and the U.S. issued statements about a panel decision on softwood lumber under NAFTA's AD/CVD dispute chapter, but the antidumping duty case, which was brought years ago under NAFTA, not under its successor, is not posted on the USMCA Secretariat's docket, and neither country would share the ruling.