Trade groups that have been active in pushing for different intellectual property approaches in India have formed a new coalition called the Alliance for Trade Enforcement, they announced May 13. Brian Pomper, a former Senate Finance Committee chief trade counsel, is the AFTE executive director. The group includes manufacturing trade groups, pharmaceutical interests, software and telecom interests, and the National Foreign Trade Council and U.S. Council for International Business. They noted that the Special 301 Report recently released by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative identified 33 countries that don't adequately protect IP rights, and said “many of those countries are repeat offenders.” Pomper said AFTE will work with the administration and Congress to dismantle trade barriers such as high tariffs, complex and opaque taxes targeting imports, and laws that do not give intellectual property the protection that USTR says is proper.
China is unlikely to meet its purchase commitments under the phase one deal, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which could lead to China invoking a force majeure clause and further postponing the prospects of a phase two agreement, China trade experts said. “Given the COVID-19 crisis, the target set in the phase one deal will be very hard to achieve,” Xu Gao, chief economist at Bank of China International, said during a May 13 webinar hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is disinclined to offer an informed compliance period for most importers, “because most of the rules of origin have remained essentially the same” as what was in NAFTA, so CBP can honor the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement claims with the same information that backed NAFTA claims, according to Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s Office of Trade.
Both the U.S. and China still plan to meet their commitments under the phase one trade deal despite the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said. During a May 7 conference call, he, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and China’s Vice Premier Liu He agreed “good progress” is being made by both sides to “make the agreement a success,” USTR said. The officials also discussed measures being taken by the U.S. and China to support their economies during the pandemic and agreed to hold more conference calls on a “regular basis.”
If countries place trade restrictions on food supplies similar to those on medical goods, the global supply chain could see significant agricultural shortages within months, trade experts said during a Washington International Trade Association webinar. But even without export controls on food, restrictions on movement and other COVID-19-related controls are already beginning to impact the flow of food goods, the experts said.
The United States notified the World Trade Organization that it has fully complied with the WTO's findings in the Boeing subsidies dispute, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said May 6. The European Union and U.S. have been battling for 15 years over whose subsidies to their aircraft manufacturers distort trade. The WTO has said that both sides were in the wrong, and the U.S. currently has Section 301 tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European aircraft, food, apparel, linens, tools, wine and spirits in a WTO-sanctioned retaliation for past Airbus subsidies.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, hopes that a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom -- for which negotiations started May 5 -- would be more favorable to American agriculture than European Union policies have been. Grassley, who was speaking to reporters on a conference call May 5, said the EU restrictions that irritate him the most are on the use of feed additives for cattle, geographical indications, and “that we can’t get [genetically modified organisms] into Europe.”
The U.S. officially announced the launch of the first round of trade negotiations with the United Kingdom (see 2005040034) on May 5, saying nearly 30 negotiating groups will discuss trade terms over the next two weeks. The first round of virtual talks will be followed by more rounds every six weeks until international travel is safe, the U.K.’s Department for International Trade said. Both sides said they are seeking an “ambitious agreement” and plan to negotiate quickly. “We will undertake negotiations at an accelerated pace,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.
Jamieson Greer, chief of staff at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from May 2017, is joining King & Spalding as a partner in its international trade practice. The law firm said that Greer was involved in negotiations for the phase one deal with China and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. “He also played a key role for USTR in the legislative reform of U.S. foreign investment reviews and implementation of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act by [the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.],” the firm said. Last year, King & Spalding hired Steven Vaughn, the general counsel at USTR.
President Donald Trump suggested China may not meet its purchase commitments under the phase one trade deal and threatened to terminate the agreement if the commitments are not met. “We're going to have to see what's going on,” Trump said during a May 3 Fox News town hall event. “They have to buy. And if they don't buy, we terminate the deal. Very simple.”