While a small deal could be announced during President Donald Trump's trip early next week to India, senior White House officials say that will be purchase announcements, not a full or partial restoration of India to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. While they declined to go into specifics on what the sticking points have been in talks on improving market access, they noted that the complaints of U.S. exporters are well known.
A bipartisan group of 19 senators, led by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., are asking the U.S. trade representative to get a deal done with the United Kingdom before the U.K. reaches its agreement with the European Union. The letter, made public Feb. 18, says the U.K. “has the greatest freedom of action now,” and getting a comprehensive agreement before the EU agreement will give the U.S. “the best possible chance of earning new access to U.K. markets.” They urged that the deal not be limited to a few sectors, and that he follow Congress's fast track negotiating objective.
The Canadian Parliament is moving the successor to NAFTA along, so that a March ratification vote is still looking likely, news from Canada says. While the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be reviewed by the agriculture, natural resources and industry/science/technology committees, not just the trade committee, the other committees only have until Feb. 25 for that review, a report from ipolitics said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he doesn't think the Trump administration will ever levy an additional 25% tax on imported autos, even as President Donald Trump continues to mention that threat in an effort to get European negotiators to open up to American agriculture exports. Grassley, who was responding to a reporter's question on how to get the European Union to bend during a conference call Feb. 18, said he doesn't think the EU will negotiate much on ag.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released an extensive critique of the appellate body at the World Trade Organization. But the administration offered no proposals for what other countries could do to satisfy it so that it would allow the appellate body to be rejuvenated. Currently, there is no quorum for the body, so it cannot hear appeals. Many of the complaints are about how the WTO has ruled on antidumping and countervailing duty cases in the U.S. -- the report mentions “zeroing,” a method used in antidumping, nearly 100 times. The report said, “The United States is publishing this Report -- the first comprehensive study of the Appellate Body’s failure to comply with WTO rules and interpret WTO agreements as written -- to examine and explain the problem, not dictate solutions.”
Customs duties are estimated at $72 billion in the current fiscal year, and the White House projects that number will climb to $92 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It projects that duties then will fall to $54 billion the following year.
In a chat with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer agreed that it should not be the case that the European Union sells $10 billion to $12 billion more in food products to U.S. consumers than the U.S. sells in food and commodities to the region. “We have to get some more concessions from Europe,” he said. “Their prices are higher, they're less efficient, they don't use the science like we do, and we have a deficit with them? It's crazy.”
The U.S and Kenya will begin negotiating a comprehensive trade deal that both sides believe will act as a model for more agreements between the U.S. and other African countries, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Feb. 6. Kenya hopes to conclude negotiations quickly, its President Uhuru Kenyatta said at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, adding that the country prefers a long-term agreement that will provide U.S. and Kenyan companies with “predictable terms of engagement” in the fields of agriculture, manufacturing, energy and more. Discussions on a framework for the negotiations will begin in the “next few days,” Kenyatta said.
Experts disagreed on whether the spread of the coronavirus will make it impossible for China to reach its purchase commitments, or make it more likely that China will wish to please the U.S., as its economy suffers. But one thing most agreed on -- the disease's impact is another reminder, after the tariff war, that companies should diversify instead of being wholly reliant on Chinese factories. The experts were on a panel at the Washington International Trade Association conference Feb. 4 on the future of U.S.-China trade.
Indonesia has given its customs officials the authority to stop counterfeit goods at the border, and just in 2020, has already seized $1 billion rupiah, or $73,000, worth of counterfeits that were set for export, according to Iwan Freddy Hari Susanto, charge d'affaires for the Indonesian Embassy. He was testifying Jan. 31 at a hearing on Indonesia's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, and was describing numerous actions the country has taken to improve protections for intellectual property rights holders.