In testimony in Canada's House of Commons, former government chief negotiator Steve Verheul told politicians that there is no surge in Canadian aluminum exports to the U.S., so a return to 10% tariffs on Canadian exports is not warranted. He said the product mix shifted, but the total exports are not up.
Fifty-two members of Congress, led by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., and Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to engage with Congress during the negotiations of a phase two agreement with Japan.
With the USMCA in effect, U.S. and Mexican companies will closely monitor a July 8 meeting between President Donald Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which is expected to feature talks on USMCA implementation and trade cooperation, experts said. Industry hopes the meeting -- Lopez Obrador’s first visit with Trump -- helps to strengthen the two countries’ commitment to USMCA and underscores attempts to reshore supply chains, reducing dependency on trade with China, the experts said.
Rich Ashooh, the Commerce Department’s assistant secretary for export administration, submitted his resignation and will officially leave the agency July 16, a Commerce spokesperson said. The spokesperson declined to comment on the reasons for Ashooh’s departure. Ashooh’s resignation was first reported by Reuters.
The U.S. named six panelists for the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, for the enforcement of USMCA labor protections:
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked White House trade adviser Peter Navarro to answer a series of questions related to former National Security Adviser John Bolton's assertion that President Donald Trump pleaded with China's president to buy more soybeans and wheat, so Trump could win re-election. He asked him to confirm the claim, and to say whether he was in all the meetings between Trump and the Chinese president that Bolton described. He asked for the answers by July 14.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, celebrated the switchover from NAFTA to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement -- coming July 1 -- but also talked about a trade irritant with Canada and one with Mexico in a conference call with reporters June 30.
The Democratic National Committee chairman, and progressive star Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., described President Donald Trump's trade war with China as a failed attempt at getting tough on China that hurt Pennsylvania exporters and manufacturers. “China smelled Trump's desperation and played him like a fiddle,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said on a video conference call with reporters June 24. “He lost the trade war that he started.”
The Senate’s 2021 Intelligence Authorization Act would require the director of National Intelligence to assess U.S. export controls on critical technologies, according to a June 17 Senate report on the bill. The bill, which was passed by the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month, calls for a review of U.S. controls on artificial intelligence, microchips, advanced manufacturing equipment and “other AI-enabled technologies,” the report said. It would also require the administration to identify areas for export control cooperation with “international partners.” Another provision in the bill requires the CIA, the Treasury Department and the FBI to submit a report to Congress on Chinese and Russian officials that could be targeted with U.S. sanctions.
U.S. and Chinese trade tensions could last for years and require a more clear, consistent approach from the U.S., experts told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission June 24. The U.S. should not address competition challenges through decoupling, they said, but should instead invest more heavily in technology research, pursue more involvement at international standards bodies and work with trade partners to counter China’s rise.