Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said during a conference call with reporters July 17 he doesn't know if the U.S. trade representative and Canada have resolved their differences over Canadian aluminum imports. The USTR has said that he was consulting with Canada about a surge of imports. Some news outlets reported three weeks ago that he would re-impose 10% tariffs on aluminum, but so far that has not happened (see 2006250048).
The House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would increase trade funding at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Trade Administration. The committee voted July 14, and now goes to the full House. The bill, which passed the committee only with Democrat votes, and so may not be tolerable to the Republicans who control the Senate, increases funding to BIS by $9.6 million, to $137.6 million. It increases funding to USTR by $1 million, to $55 million, and ups funding to the International Trade Administration by $21.4 million, to $542.4 million. Spending for CBP will be part of a Department of Homeland Security bill, and the amount has not been determined yet.
The U.S. and Japan expanded their organic trade arrangement to include livestock products, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said July 14. The move will reduce costs and streamline processes for U.S. exporters involved in organic livestock supply chains by requiring only one organic certification, the USTR said.
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.
The Alliance for Trade Enforcement is asking U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to bring up intellectual property and agriculture issues with Mexico and Canada in the USMCA. The alliance includes trade groups in pharmaceutical, biotech and creative industries and the National Association of Manufacturers, in addition to broad trade groups such as the National Foreign Trade Council and the U.S. Council for International Business.
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.
United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Truss said negotiations with the U.S. on a free trade agreement so far have been “positive and constructive,” and she sees a way forward for the deal. “I think it is possible to protect our red lines, protect our regulatory independence, whilst opening markets,” she said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Kenya Secretary for Industrialization, Trade and Enterprise Development Betty Maina released a joint statement on the formal launch of free trade negotiations.
Rep. Rick Larsen, one of the chairpersons of the New Democrats' trade task force, told the Washington International Trade Association that he thinks the U.S. has not gotten any benefit out of the Trump administration's trade war. When asked by International Trade Today if a Joe Biden administration would roll back the Section 301 tariffs, even if China does not give concessions on industrial subsidies or state-owned enterprises, Larsen said, “I think the next administration needs to reset where we are, how we’re going to approach this.”
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., want Congress to say on the record that belonging to the World Trade Organization has value, even as the U.S. seeks reforms to its system, including in dispute resolution and how developing countries are treated. Their resolution was introduced July 2.