A World Trade Organization dispute panel rejected China's claim that its retaliatory tariffs in response to Section 232 tariffs were justified because the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs were a safeguard in disguise.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is soliciting comments on China's compliance with its World Trade Organization obligations. Comments and requests to testify at an Oct. 4 public hearing are due by 11:59 p.m. Sept. 20. The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. Comments may be submitted at regulations.gov using Docket Number USTR–2023-0008.
The fifth negotiating round for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will be held Sept. 10-16 in Thailand, the administration announced Aug. 10. The supply chains chapter is complete, but negotiators will be talking about trade issues, the green transition and anticorruption matters. The U.S. delegation is led by Sharon Yuan, a counselor at Commerce, and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Ellerman, whose portfolio is Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on how Russia is complying with its World Trade Organization commitments, including in its import regulation, export regulation, subsidies, non-tariff barriers, intellectual property rights enforcement, rule of law issues, and trade facilitation, or other issues.
More than 230 environmental groups sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asking her to seek climate peace clauses as she talks with the EU, countries participating in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and countries in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity.
President Joe Biden signed the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade First Agreement Implementation Act into law Aug. 7 but said there are constitutional concerns with language that would require the U.S. trade representative to provide negotiating texts to the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees "in the midst of negotiations," and would also preclude USTR from presenting its text to Taiwan while Congress is reviewing it.
Anabel Gonzalez, one of the World Trade Organization's deputy directors-general, said in a farewell column that although progress is being made on improving the WTO, "governments face some tough choices in the months and years to come to deal with pressing matters that, if left unchecked, could seriously erode the multilateral trading system and damage trade as an engine of growth and prosperity."
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A former U.S. trade representative and treasury secretary this week cautioned the Biden administration as it prepares to introduce a new outbound investment screening regime, saying new authorities like these tend to expand over time and could eventually be used beyond their intended purpose.
A readout from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the latest round of talks between the trade representative and her EU counterpart on a steel and aluminum deal suggested she does not think the EU is thinking big enough. The U.S. and the EU are trying to agree on a system that would preference steel and aluminum made with a lower carbon footprint, and, at the same time, a system that would keep metals produced through non-market excess capacity out of their countries.