The White House announced this week it has selected Joseph Barloon to be its ambassador to the World Trade Organization, a role of a deputy U.S. trade representative. Barloon served as general counsel to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative 2019-2020, during the first Trump administration. He also was nominated to be a judge at the Court of International Trade by President Donald Trump in that first term but wasn't confirmed (see 2102050032).
The EU chairman of the Committee for International Trade and a former U.S. trade representative predicted that the trade dispute between the U.S. and the EU is unlikely to subside soon due to "fundamental disagreements" over economic policy.
The reciprocal tariffs that the U.S. intends to levy on imports -- which could be announced as soon as April 2 -- may not be a one-for-one match of the tariff rate of another country for that product. Rather, they could take into account wage suppression, exchange rate management, "mercantilist policies," non-tariff barriers, value-added tax and extraterritorial taxes.
All Senate Finance Committee Republicans, joined by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., voted on Feb. 12 to approve the nomination of Jamieson Greer to be the next U.S. trade representative. The vote was 15-12 in favor of the nomination.
President Donald Trump's chief spokesman from his first term said that half-baked orders from the White House -- like an order to end de minimis for Chinese goods that CBP was not ready to implement -- is in part a result of Trump's memories of his staff trying to slow-walk and stop his tariff ideas.
The opening salvos of President Donald Trump's aggressive trade actions in the first weeks of his administration may be a harbinger of what is to come in the next four years as trade experts predict an upending of the global trade system.
Jamieson Greer, Trump's pick to be U.S. trade representative, told Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that he will make sure that the appropriateness of the 2.5% tariff on cars is reviewed as part of the sunset review for USMCA. Sanders, the most famous leftist in the Senate, had pointed out in his written questions that 2.5% is not high enough to convince all Mexican exporters to follow USMCA rules of origin.
C.J. Mahoney, who led the U.S. team in renegotiating NAFTA during the first Trump administration, described USMCA as "a modest success so far," that has increased U.S. production of auto engines and transmissions, and increased factory construction in both the U.S. and Mexico.
Four senators, two from each party, reintroduced a bill that would authorize the U.S. trade representative, in consultation with Congress about objectives, to negotiate specialized trade agreements focused on critical minerals and rare earth elements. Those trade agreements also would need to get a vote of approval from Congress before they could enter into force.
The nominee to lead the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, told New Mexico Democrat Sen. Ben Lujan that, as he starts a sunset review of USMCA, he thinks rules of origin should be tightened up in some sectors.