Stakeholders that wish to speak to officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and Commerce Department about their negotiating priorities for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework must email IPEF@ustr.eop.gov by Dec. 2 if they wish to speak in Brisbane, Australia, on Dec. 13, and by Dec. 5 if they want to speak Dec. 6 in Washington. Email subject lines should say "USTR/Department of Commerce Listening Session" for the domestic event and "Brisbane Stakeholder Event" to get an opportunity to speak on the sidelines of the negotiating round. The Dec. 6 event will run from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; the Brisbane event, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. local time.
Nearly 60 agricultural trade groups, companies and ag services providing trade groups asked Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to schedule confirmation votes for the chief agricultural negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and for the undersecretary of agriculture for trade and foreign agricultural affairs at USDA.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the primary movers behind the Chips Act, told an audience that more domains need policymakers' attention so that they don't wake up to find that China has become dominant in an important emerging technology. He noted that before becoming a politician, he "was in the telecommunication space," and said that realizing that China is dominating 5G with two heavily subsidized champion companies was the "final wake-up call" that engagement and deeper trade with China is not the right way to go.
Japan’s Diet gave its final approval for a new beef safeguard trigger under the U.S-Japan Trade Agreement (see 2206030006), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said last week. Both the U.S. and Japan are now working to complete all remaining “domestic procedures” to officially implement the new trigger, which could reduce the possibility that U.S. beef exporters face higher tariffs when shipping to Japan (see 2203240020). “The Protocol will ensure our farmers and ranchers continue to have access to one of the world’s most dynamic markets,” USTR Katherine Tai said.
Congress should create a new, “permanent” committee in the executive branch tasked with planning sanctions against China under “a range of possible scenarios,” including if it invades Taiwan, a congressional commission said this week. The bipartisan commission also said the Commerce Department should provide Congress with regular enforcement and licensing reports on certain China-related export control decisions and said the administration should create a new list of Chinese firms that should be subject to strict export licensing requirements.
Of all the outstanding trade policy options -- new trade promotion authority, requiring Section 301 exclusions, revisions to antidumping law and a customs modernization law -- the head of government relations at Flexport said he thinks customs modernization is the most likely to pass. "I think we are coming on the cusp of something," Darien Flowers said, and said he thinks a bill will be enacted before 2025. Flowers once worked for Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who is leading the bill, though more recently he served on the minority staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Australia will host the first in-person negotiating round for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Brisbane, starting Dec. 10. "This will be an important opportunity to identify areas of consensus and continue developing the four IPEF pillars," Office of the U.S. Trade Representative spokesman Adam Hodge said. The round is scheduled to last through Dec. 15.
The U.S. and Ukraine will negotiate to update the United States-Ukraine Trade and Investment Cooperation Agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said after meeting Nov. 9 with Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the U.S. and Taiwan had two days of productive meetings this week, exchanging views on what needs to be addressed in trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, anticorruption, small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, standards, digital trade, labor, environment, state-owned enterprises, and non-market policies and practices.
The U.S. and Taiwan will hold in-person "conceptual discussions" on the U.S.-Taiwan trade initiative in New York Nov. 8-9. The trade initiative (see 2208180042) is similar to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, in which Taiwan isn't a participant.