Taiwan and the U.S. had their first official meeting under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement since 2016, and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Terry McCartin praised Taiwan for improving its enforcement of trade secrets protections, and its plan to change its medical device approval process.
The top trade officials in the U.S., Canada and Mexico gathered virtually to celebrate the one-year anniversary of USMCA, which is July 1, with Canadian and Mexican ministers emphasizing the worth of integrated supply chains and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai emphasizing the elements of USMCA that protect workers in the region and around the world. Tai said at a Wilson Center program June 30, "A good next step in this increased cooperation can be on the issue of forced labor. The USMCA includes a strong obligation to prohibit the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Working together to address this critical economic and moral issue would send a powerful message to the world."
The European Union and the U.S. working together have the leverage to change China's distortions in the world economy, experts speaking during a three-day series on EU-U.S. trade issues said. But it's not easy, with the economic interests of German manufacturers in China, the history of trade tensions across the Atlantic, and bureaucratic torpor on both sides, they said.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced a bill that would require a study of whether Canadian and Mexican manufacturers are able to get tariff breaks on non-North American inputs to their goods, and if so, does that affect the cost-competitiveness of products manufactured in the U.S. for domestic and export markets. Cornyn led an unsuccessful effort to convince the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2020 that goods produced inside foreign-trade zones should be treated as products of the U.S. (see 2012020031).
Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade Chairman Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and ranking member Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, agree that the U.S. should be in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but the expert witnesses at the hearing they held June 22 showed no path to the U.S. reentering the agreement with the 11 countries that went on to seal the deal. This was despite agreement among most subcommittee members (though not Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio) and the witnesses that leaving TPP was a tactical mistake that leaves the U.S. at a trade and geopolitical disadvantage.
A bipartisan letter from four House members asked the European Union's ambassador to the U.S. for a meeting to see if the changes to export certificate requirements for food could be reconsidered or delayed. Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., publicized the letter in a June 17 press release. Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., also signed the letter.
Eighteen House members, led by Reps. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act, which requires the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to review Nicaragua's compliance with the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) within 60 days of the bill becoming law. “Under Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua has become a land of oppression” Salazar said in a June 17 news release. “Ortega's thugs are jailing political opponents and violently silencing dissenting voices. I've introduced the Nicaragua Free Trade Review Act because trade with the United States is a privilege, not a right. We must show Ortega's regime that they cannot continue repressing the Nicaraguan people while reaping the economic benefits of free trade with the United States.”
The U.S. and the European Union agreed this week to establish a U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, which will feature working groups on emerging technologies, export controls, investment screening and securing semiconductor supply chains, the White House said June 15. The European Commission said the council will meet “periodically” at the political level and will be chaired by EU trade officials along with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. The working groups will “operationalise the political decisions into deliverables” and report to the political level, the commission said.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories for June 7-11 in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Biden administration emphasized how reaching an agreement to end a 17-year-dispute over government subsidies to both Airbus and Boeing does more than just lift tariffs for at least five years. They see the most significant plank of the agreement as the one in which European Union countries agree to prevent foreign investments in the aerospace sector that are done to acquire technology or know-how, and to counter investments by European aerospace companies in China or other countries that are done in response to incentives or because the investments are a condition to sell in that market.