Bryant Trick, a career staffer at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, was named acting assistant USTR for Europe and the Middle East. Before this appointment, announced Sept. 5, Trick served as deputy assistant USTR for Korea. The new role covers the EU, the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Northern Africa.
Although the office of the U.S. Representative has already received nearly 1,500 comments on "worker-centered trade," the office has re-opened comments that closed Aug. 11. It is now accepting ideas on trade policies and actions to advance racial and gender equity, advance equity for rural communities or other underserved categories, as well as ideas on how to advance these values through stakeholder engagement.
India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that he will "find a solution that addresses both countries' concerns" when it comes to India's new import licensing regime for technology imports. The new system is supposed to go into effect Nov. 1; U.S. technology companies have said it will hurt their exports to India (see 2308170028).
Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Aug. 24 announced 130 new industry officials to sit on seven agricultural trade advisory committees, including bodies that advise the government on trade policies for animal products, fruits and vegetables, grains, cotton, nuts and more. The new members, who join 70 committee members whose terms haven’t yet expired, will serve until August 2027. The new members represent a range of trade groups and companies.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking Aug. 24 to other G-20 trade ministers, said the U.S. wants to reform the World Trade Organization by improving compliance with -- and enforcement of -- WTO members' commitments, "restoring efficacy to the negotiating arm; ... equipping the Membership to address unfair practices and global market distortions, and putting the organization on the footing to promote trade policies that build resilience and address current global challenges."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, after a meeting with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis in Jaipur, India, said she and her EU counterpart asked their negotiating teams to hold sessions on both a global arrangement on sustainable steel and aluminum and on a critical minerals agreement "with an intensified pace."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai met with World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Jaipur, India, ahead of the G-20 Trade and Investment Ministers' Meeting, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced. The readout said Tai discussed U.S. support for the WTO and the 13th Ministerial Conference, set to take place in late February next year. Agreeing to remain in "close coordination" in the coming months, Tai and Okonjo-Iweala expressed their desire to make MC13 "the WTO's first reform ministerial."
Mexico raised tariffs for imports of steel and other items from non-free trade agreement countries, the country announced Aug 16, according to an unofficial translation. The increased tariffs -- which could subject certain products to duties "of up to 25%," the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said -- will apply to merchandise from certain “strategic industries,” including steel, textiles, clothing, footwear, aluminum, tires, plastics, glass and ceramics.
The U.S. has initiated the formation of a dispute settlement panel over Mexico's decree to not allow biotech corn for tortillas and directive to the administration to gradually substitute genetically modified corn in processed foods and in animal feed.
New Indian import restrictions on computers and other electronics could “significantly disrupt” trade, including U.S. exports, eight industry groups wrote in a letter this week to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The groups -- representing the American semiconductor, electronics, manufacturing and retail industries -- asked the Biden administration to raise the issue with the Indian government “as a matter of urgency.”