Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced the Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports (SAVE) Act, which will amend the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to "include and define a list of common names for ag commodities, food products, and terms used in marketing and packaging of products," Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., announced in a press release last week. In addition, SAVE also will direct the secretary of agriculture and the U.S. trade representative to negotiate with "our foreign trading partners to defend the right to use common names for ag commodities in those same foreign markets," the press release said.
The U.S. and Taiwan completed five chapters of a trade agreement similar to the issues under discussion in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the U.S. announced late May 18.
Both outbound and a new approach for the Committee for Foreign Investment in the U.S. drew attention at a recent hearing of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and the chairman of the committee suggested that limiting investment screening to active investors, such as venture capital firms, is not enough.
Former chief agricultural negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Gregg Doud called for the use of the new enforcement mechanism in the USMCA during a House Agriculture Committee hearing May 11.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers this week reintroduced a bill that could establish an outbound investment screening regime to prevent China and others from illegally acquiring sensitive U.S. technology.
The U.S. readout of the meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, mentioned Canada's proposed digital services tax. "Ambassador Tai expressed her hope that the United States and Canada could work together on this issue that could unfairly impact U.S. businesses," it said.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking from Asia, where she had just finished a round of meetings with Philippine and Japanese officials, said the U.S.-China trade war did not come up in her meetings, as these visits focused much more on the bilateral trade and economic relationship.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and her counterpart from the EU, Valdis Dombrovskis, said their discussions on a critical minerals agreement and a deal to privilege green steel and aluminum trade were productive. It was the fourth time this year that Tai and the EU's top trade official met.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai officially signed the instrument of acceptance of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies deal struck at the 12th Ministerial Conference. With the signing, the U.S. became the fourth WTO member, and first large fishing nation, to formally accept the deal. Two-thirds of WTO members must accept the deal for it to take effect.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released its 2023 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, highlighting the most significant foreign market issues U.S. exporters are facing. The report focuses on foreign import policies, technical barriers to trade, intellectual property protection, competition, and more.