Senators on the committee that oversees trade pressed U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai repeatedly on why the administration isn't engaged in negotiations with other countries to get them to lower their tariffs, so that U. S.exporters, particularly agricultural producers, can gain more market share. Both Democrats and Republicans questioned the decision to pursue the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as something other than a traditional free trade agreement.
During a hearing with the House Ways and Means Committee March 30, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai was asked by many Republicans and a few Democrats why the administration has ruled out cutting tariffs to convince negotiating partners in Asia to open their markets, and why it has shied away from continuing free trade agreement negotiations started during the previous administration.
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U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will testify at the House Ways and Means Committee March 30 at 10 a.m. The hybrid virtual and in-person hearing is on the topic of the Biden administration's trade policy agenda. She will testify at the Senate Finance Committee March 31st at 10 a.m.
The top trade official on the European Commission said that Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine revealed how important it was that he and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai "spent last year fixing some aspects of U.S.-EU relations," and then moved to a forward-looking agenda with the Trade and Technology Council. Tai, who spoke remotely to the Brussels business audience hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in the EU on March 24, called EC Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis a good friend.
The U.S. and Japan will raise the beef safeguard trigger level under the two countries’ trade deal, reducing the possibility that U.S. beef exporters will face higher tariffs when shipping to Japan, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said March 24. The deal now requires three separate triggers to be met before Japan can raise tariffs on imports of U.S. beef, giving U.S. exporters more “certainty” when trading with Japan, a senior USTR official said.
BALTIMORE -- U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai continued to throw cold water on the idea of reviving negotiations for a free-trade agreement with the United Kingdom, saying, "A free trade agreement is a tool. It is a very 20th century tool. It has its place certainly in the toolbox," she said, but said that she wants these U.K.-U.S. economic dialogues to be "maximally responsive" to today's trade challenges. She said she wants to make sure "that we don’t spend years and spend a lot of blood, sweat and tears working on something that isn't going to be relevant to the needs of our people or our economies."
The top trade official in the British government and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said they want to do even more trade and investment between the two countries, even as a free-trade agreement is not the end goal. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan had hoped that the Biden administration would continue the free trade negotiations started during the Trump administration, but that has not happened. Marjorie Chorlins, who leads the U.S.-U.K. Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also spoke at the March 21 plenary in Baltimore, saying the business community strongly supports more U.S.-U.K. economic cooperation.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that it has reached a compromise on a World Trade Organization intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines. According to a USTR spokesperson, no agreement on a precise text has been pinned down, but Reuters reported that the proposed agreement, the result of a compromise between the U.S., EU, India and South Africa, permits the use of "patented subject matter required for the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines without the consent of the right holder to the extent necessary to address the COVID-19 pandemic."
Senators on the Finance Committee agreed that deepening trade ties with countries in Asia is important both for geopolitical and economic reasons, but they disagreed during a March 15 hearing on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework about whether a traditional free-trade agreement is a better approach than the IPEF.