President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Marine Gen. John Kelly as the next Homeland Security secretary, several media outlets, including the Washington Post (here), reported on Dec. 7. Most recently, Kelly served as chief of U.S. Southern Command from October 2012 to February 2016, according to his DOD bio (here). Kelly commanded Marines deployed to Iraq in 2008, after an earlier tour in Iraq as an assistant division commander from 2002 to 2004, and was legislative assistant to the Marine Corps Commandant from 2004 to 2007, according to the bio. In 1999, Kelly worked as the special assistant to the NATO Supreme Allied Commander. Kelly delivered testimony (here) to the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2015 that discussed concern over vulnerabilities on the U.S.-Mexico border, namely the threat of terrorists taking advantage of human smuggling routes. The testimony also highlighted the U.S. Southern Command's cooperation with DHS and CBP. Kelly is currently a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (here).

President Barack Obama is expected to sign H.R. 6297, the Iran Sanctions Extension Act (here), which the Senate on Dec. 1 unanimously voted to send to the White House (see 1612020018), a White House spokesperson said Dec. 2 (here). A State Department spokesperson said that Secretary of State John Kerry will continue to waive all relevant U.S. nuclear-related sanctions in adherence with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) (here). Part of the reason expected for Obama's signature is due to the "clean" nature of the legislation, the State spokesperson said, as it merely extends for 10 years the U.S.'s current Iran primary sanctions with no changes. Those sanctions are currently set to expire at the end of this year, and the bill would ensure that the U.S. could bring back sanctions on Iran if the nation breaks its JCPOA obligations.

President Barack Obama on Dec. 1 issued a presidential proclamation modifying the tariff schedule (here). Changes include implementation of the 2017 Harmonized System tariff nomenclature adopted by the World Customs Organization (see 14073002 and 14073101), with specific changes and their effective date to be outlined in an as-yet-unreleased International Trade Commission report. Other modifications to the tariff schedule implement phased tariff cuts under the Information Technology Agreement (see 1607050018) and several bilateral free trade agreements. International Trade Today will provide further information as more details are released.

There isn't as much of a gap between President-elect Donald Trump’s and Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s trade stances as many expected, said Marty Obst, Pence’s inaugural director, during a Barnes & Thornburg event Nov. 30. People in the Indiana governor’s circle thought the two would be “miles apart” on trade because of Pence’s free trade views, he said. But during a campaign call between the leaders' allies exploring whether Pence would be a suitable running mate, Trump told Pence’s colleagues that he’s not against free trade, but he’s more in favor of bilateral, as opposed to multilateral, deals, which Pence jumped on board with. According to Obst, Trump said, “I just want bilateral deals that make sense for us, because we’ve made some bad deals. So I just want to re-examine all of them.” Trump provided “interesting insights” into how to fix the U.S. trade imbalance, and he and Pence will work to do that in an “earnest way,” while benefiting U.S. businesses, Obst added.

Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross confirmed that President-elect Donald Trump selected them to serve as treasury secretary and commerce secretary, respectively, during a CNBC interview (here). After Trump’s campaign threats to raise tariffs on Chinese goods raised some uncertainty in the trade community, Ross indicated that tariffs would be a last resort in Trump administration trade negotiations. “The real trick is going to be [to] increase American exports,” Ross said. “Get rid of some of the tariff and nontariff barriers to American exports.” Mnuchin and Ross called the Trans-Pacific Partnership a bad deal, and Mnuchin emphasized the focus on bilateral, as opposed to multilateral, deals that the soon-to-be Trump administration will take. “The problem with regional trade agreements is you get picked apart by the first country,” Ross said. “Then you negotiate [with] . . . the second country. You get picked apart. And you go with the third one. You get picked apart again. What has to be put into perspective, we are the big market. We are the world's biggest importer. We need to treat the other countries as good suppliers, not as determining the whole show.”

The transition team for President-elect Donald Trump added new members for the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Homeland Security, it said (here). Nova Daly, an “international investment and trade policy professional” with Wiley Rein, and Stephen Vaughn, a trade lawyer who focuses on antidumping and countervailing duty cases with King & Spalding, are on the USTR team. Thomas DiNanno of the International Assessment & Strategy Center and Katharine Gorka of the Council on Global Security are with DHS. Separately, news reports (here) indicate Trump intends to nominate Elaine Chao as secretary of transportation. Chao was secretary of labor under George W. Bush, and deputy secretary of transportation from 1989 to 1991.

President-elect Donald Trump will withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on his first day in office, he said in a Nov. 21 video message describing the presidential transition (here). “I’ve asked our transition team to develop a list of executive actions we can take on Day One to restore our laws and bring back our jobs. It’s about time,” he said. “These include the following: On trade, I’m going to issue our notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country.” Instead of the TPP, the Trump administration will negotiate “fair,” bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry “back onto American shores,” Trump said.

Members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group agreed to refrain from imposing customs duties on electronically transmitted content, committed to not competitively devalue currencies, and adopted a set of best practices to protect trade secrets, according to a White House fact sheet (here) recapping the Nov. 18-20 APEC summit in Lima. The best-practices document (here) suggests that APEC members apply broad standing to claims for the protection of trade secrets and enforcement against their theft; outlines standards for remedies, penalties, and civil and criminal liability for trade secrets theft; and recommends adoption of “written measures” to better protect against further disclosure when governments require submission of trade secrets. “The progress achieved today at APEC is an important step in the right direction,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a Nov. 21 statement (here). “We look forward to working with countries in the Asia-Pacific to raise standards for trade secret protection and enforcement, including the adoption of these best practices.”

President-elect Donald Trump’s “landing team” that will lay the groundwork for agency transitions after Jan. 20 includes retired Nucor CEO Dan DiMicco and Skadden Arps attorney Robert Lighthizer for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, according to an announcement by the Trump transition team (here). Members of the Commerce Department landing team are Ray Washburne of Charter Holdings, David Bohigian of Pluribus Ventures, and Joan Maginnis, a retired Commerce official, the announcement says. Trump’s Treasury Department landing team consists of Mauricio Claver-Carone of Cuba Democracy Advocates, self-employed economist Judy Shelton, Curtis Dubay of the Heritage Foundation, and William Walton of Rappahannock Ventures.

The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) called on President-elect Donald Trump to request more and to fairly disperse allocations for harbor maintenance tax (HMT) spending and boost federal investments in navigation channel deepening and widening, among other things, AAPA said (here). In a document the group sent to Trump’s transition team (here), AAPA also urged the incoming administration to provide 500 more CBP maritime staff at U.S. seaports, promote installation and upkeep of radiation portal monitors at U.S. ports, and bump up the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Port Security Grant Program funding level. “Local ports and their private-sector partners plan to invest nearly $155 billion into infrastructure over the next five years,” AAPA CEO Kurt Nagle said in a statement. “Leveraging federal investments in seaport and freight-related programs will yield huge dividends in the form of economic growth, maintaining and creating jobs, enhancing America’s international competitiveness and sustaining a healthy environment.” AAPA also recommended the upcoming administration create a “21st Century Port Portfolio” in the Department of Energy to facilitate coordination between ports and DOE on technologies that reduce emissions, electrify port operations, and support new clean energy terminal designs and construction.