There will be $840 million in emergency appropriations for CBP, in light of its lost fees during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of many areas where Congress voted to dedicate additional funding through Sept. 30, 2021. The massive omnibus spending bill that passed both chambers late on Dec. 21 also dedicated an additional $10 million for ports of entry technology. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund will receive $50 million more than in the last fiscal year. It uses 92% of the fees collected for maintenance purposes, an estimated $1.68 billion in all in the current fiscal year.
In an interview with the BBC, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that finishing the U.S.-United Kingdom free trade deal should be palatable to the next administration, with its language around labor standards and climate change, but U.K. resistance on agriculture standards is one of the obstacles to getting it finished in the next month. “We're both leaders in the world on digital trade, on financial services. And I think we could do an awful lot to write the rules together, the best rules together,” he said, according to a story published Dec. 17. “There's a short period of time they're going to have to try to wrap this up. But I think it's something that can happen. It'll require compromise on both sides.”
A small deal that would restore India's Generalized System of Preferences benefits is something that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal have made headway on, Lighthizer said while speaking to the Confederation of Indian Industry. “My guess is we are not far away from a deal like that. Keep in mind, obviously, we have a political change going on over here and that’s going to be a bit of a setback, certainly, to the extent that I can facilitate that, which I would be happy to do it, but there is going to be some changes and my guess is that is going to slow things up,” he said Dec. 16 during an online interview.
Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, said he's glad House Ways and Means Committee chief trade counsel Katherine Tai is the nominee for his old job, because he thinks “that will help with moving an agenda forward vis a vis Congress.” Portman was one of eight former USTRs speaking on a webinar Dec. 17 hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Tomas Baert, head of trade and agriculture at the European delegation in Washington, said the European Union is looking for a “strong and united front with the United States” on trade as the region and the world recover from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Baert, who was speaking on a webinar Dec. 15 hosted by the European American Chamber of Commerce, said that while the Trump era was marked with “turbulence and tension” in trade, Europe feels like it escaped mostly unharmed, since there were not “massive tariffs” imposed on exported cars, trucks and auto parts, as was threatened.
A new report summarizing town halls convened by Farmers for Free Trade says the elimination of the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico “went a long way toward stabilizing these export markets,” and that grain prices have recovered, but that more free trade deals are critical to support farmers and rural economies. The report, released Dec. 15, was highlighted in a webinar.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., says that the new administration should prioritize a free trade deal with the European Union following the template of USMCA, saying President Donald Trump's abandonment of serious trade talks with Europe was a “particularly detrimental blunder.”
President-elect Joe Biden announced Dec. 10 that he's selecting House Ways and Means Committee Chief Trade Counsel Katherine Tai to be the next U.S. trade representative, saying that her deep experience will allow the administration to “harness the power of our trading relationships to help the U.S. dig out of the COVID-induced economic crisis and pursue the President-elect’s vision of a pro-American worker trade strategy.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Dec. 9 announced that he'll be seeking consultations with Mary Ng, his Canadian counterpart, over the way that Canada allocated tariff rate quotas. Canadian processors are guaranteed a percentage of those import quotas, and the U.S. says that undermines American producers' access to Canada. “President [Donald] Trump successfully renegotiated the USMCA to replace the failed NAFTA, and a key improvement was to give U.S. dairy producers fairer access to Canada’s highly protected dairy market,” he said. “We are disappointed that Canada’s policies have made this first ever enforcement action under the USMCA necessary to ensure compliance with the agreement.”
The United Kingdom will stop collecting 15% punitive tariffs on U.S. aircraft; 25% tariffs on more than 100 products, notably agricultural, food and beverage items, including chocolate, ketchup, rum, vodka, frozen orange juice and cotton; and 25% tariffs on equipment, such as tractors, firetrucks and exercise equipment.