Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Chief Agricultural Negotiator Doug McKalip and U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor, after meeting with Mexican officials over Mexico's plans to phase out the importation of genetically engineered crops, said they appreciate proposed modifications to the presidential decree. "However, these changes are not sufficient and Mexico’s proposed approach, which is not grounded in science, still threatens to disrupt billions of dollars in bilateral agricultural trade, cause serious economic harm to U.S. farmers and Mexican livestock producers, and stifle important innovations needed to help producers respond to pressing climate and food security challenges," they said.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she and U.K. Secretary of State for International Trade Kemi Badenoch talked about how to strengthen the U.S.-U.K. trade relationship, how to reform the World Trade Organization, and how to confront "the challenges posed by non-market economies."
The top trade official in the EU, Valdis Dombrovskis, said that he would talk about the changes they want to the Inflation Reduction Act during his planned meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Jan. 17. He said there have been improvements on how the tax credits for electrical vehicles will be applied, but said, "We're continuing to work on supplies and inputs into batteries and how to make some progress there," as well as other areas.
The U.S. readout of the first round of negotiations for the 21st Century Trade Initiative with Taiwan said the two sides reached consensus in a number of areas, and will continue to negotiate on trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, domestic regulation of services and approaches to boost small companies and fight corruption.
FDA on Jan. 12 signed a Mutual Recognition Agreement with Switzerland’s Agency for Therapeutic Products (Swissmedic) that will allow the U.S. and Switzerland to rely on each other’s inspections of pharmaceutical and veterinary drug facilities, avoiding the need for duplicate inspections, FDA said in a statement that day. Prior to the MRA’s entry into force, FDA still must “determine whether Swissmedic is capable of conducting inspections that meet U.S. requirements, and Swissmedic must make a similar determination with respect to the FDA meeting Swiss requirements,” FDA said. The MRA includes privisons on when the regulators intend to accept official good manufacturing practice documents from the other; how regulators will transmit the documents; and the establishment of two committees “to facilitate the effective functioning of the MRA,” said a release from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which also signed the agreement.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal did not announce any breakthroughs after their Jan. 11 meeting, but their joint statement pointed to some trade irritants that might be resolved in the future.
In the first formal round of negotiations with Taiwan, the U.S. will present texts it would like to see adopted on good regulatory practices, trade facilitation and other areas, but not on lowering tariffs for U.S. exports, as that is beyond the scope of the 21st Century Trade Initiative.
Ahead of a meeting of the "Three Amigos" -- the presidents of the U.S. and Mexico and the prime minister of Canada -- Jan. 9-10, business groups that advocate for North American integration said during a Jan. 6 webinar that they're hoping to see more evidence of nearshoring and using North American resources to diversify away from China.
Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Terry McCartin, along with other U.S. officials, will travel to Taipei for in-person negotiations for the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, which has similar objectives to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. The negotiations are scheduled for Jan. 14-17.
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