U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she had an informal dialogue about the World Trade Organization dispute settlement system with representatives from Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, India and South Africa. Tai was in Bali, Indonesia, for a G-20 trade ministers meeting, and the discussion happened on the sidelines of that meeting.

The Border Trade Alliance, which previously came out against a Florida request to the administration to open a Section 301 investigation on produce imports from Mexico, sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the matter Sept. 21.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a technical correction to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to reflect the eligibility of Curacao for duty-free import provisions for certain apparel and textile luggage. The agency’s notice adds Curacao to the list of countries in Note 7(b) to subchapter II of Chapter 98 of the HTS, effective Sept. 22. The country had not been added to the note even though it was declared eligible in 2015.

Talk of a potential “early harvest” partial deal on trade from Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) talks is a “little premature,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said during a call with reporters early on Sept. 19. In Cambodia for talks with Association of Southeast Asian Nations ministers, Tai said the U.S. is “coming into this with a lot of ambition, and again, a lot of motivation,” and is focused on making sure “that we are engaging robustly across all components of the trade pillar because all of them are important.” Tai said it remains to be seen “just how fast we can get to our deliverables,” but that the U.S. is “focused on speed, agility, and also on being practical.”

The only outstanding USMCA rapid response labor complaint, against Manufacturas VU, a Michigan-headquartered supplier of interior automotive trims, has been settled, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced.

Electric vehicle manufacturing and supply chain resilience in semiconductors continued as major topics in the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue, and pharmaceutical supply chain resilience is now also on the agenda, according to a joint statement after the HLED in Mexico City Sept. 12.

India chose not to sign onto the trade pillar in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which focuses on digital trade, trade facilitation, science-based sanitary and phytosanitary rules, trade in environmental goods, and laws to protect labor rights.

Trade facilitation -- or how customs is administered -- and digital trade practices are non-tariff barriers that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework can tackle, and therefore help U.S. exporters, particularly small businesses. That was the message from a senior official at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is managing one of the four pillars of the IPEF.

U. S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that when she met with Korea’s Minister for Trade Ahn Dukgeun, he told her his country's concerns about the electric vehicle provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. "They ... highlighted the importance of meaningful action on clean energy technologies to combat the climate crisis while addressing supply chain and security vulnerabilities," she said in a readout of the Sept. 7 meeting.

A complaint from Rethink Trade and SNITIS, a Mexican labor union, submitted in early August alleging that the management of BBB Industries de Mexico in Reynosa, Mexico, conspired with a captive union to rig a contract vote was not pursued by the U.S. government, Reuters reported. Previously, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked Mexico to investigate five other complaints brought under USMCA's rapid response labor mechanism. Four of those complaints have been resolved, and one, against Manufacturas VU, an auto parts plant in Piedras Negras, is still pending. The agency told Reuters there was not "sufficient, credible evidence of a denial of rights," so that's why it didn't go forward. USTR didn't comment.