A former top U.S. trade official and a New Zealand ambassador were optimistic the World Trade Organization can work through issues over its dispute settlement body but warned about damaging consequences for world trade if it doesn’t.
President Donald Trump, speaking at a fracking conference in Pennsylvania, first said that Democrats don't want to put the NAFTA rewrite up for a vote, then said, "But I think they're going to put it up because everybody wants it, and I think ultimately, they're going to do the right thing."
Ten trade groups, all typically Republican allies, sent a letter to the White House and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer asking that America submit a proposal for reforming the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, with the offer that if it were adopted, the U.S. would stop blocking appointments to that body. While the administration has been clear about its concerns on how the appeals process is conducted, it has not offered a specific solution. The Oct. 23 letter also defended the dispute settlement system at the WTO, saying, "Since the United States is the world’s largest trading nation and the second-largest exporter, it has been one of the major beneficiaries of the WTO process."
Trade experts identified many weaknesses of the World Trade Organization -- the evidentiary standard for countervailing duties: the fact that CVD in one market doesn't help the industry's economics when surplus flows to other countries; the length of time it takes to show adverse effects to domestic firms; the fact that 164 countries can't agree on trade liberalization.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she's optimistic the administration and trading partners will be able to reach agreement on enforceability that will allow the House to proceed with a vote. Pelosi, speaking at a press conference Oct. 17, said the working group is "making progress every day." She also said that the agreement has to be respectful of global agreements on the environment, and she hopes the provisions on biologics can be resolved to the satisfaction of Democrats. "That's a very big issue in our caucus," she said.
Mexican officials presented a letter from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal Oct. 17 that he is asking the national legislature and state legislatures to increase what they are spending on labor reform in the coming year, including an additional $18.8 million for federal labor courts, $18 million for local conciliation center, $13.5 million for local labor courts and $10 million for training, public education and verification related to the new contracts. The federal government will provide a property worth $23 million to the new labor center, he said,
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Mexico has made "another significant step forward" by promising to fully fund new labor courts that will be integral to major labor reform in that country. Neal said he, fellow working group member Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and committee member Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., met with the Mexican president for an hour and 45 minutes during the recess, an hour longer than scheduled.
President Donald Trump announced a "very substantial phase 1" deal in the Oval Office Oct. 11, saying the Chinese and American negotiators came to a deal on intellectual property, financial services and agricultural sales. The president said China will buy as much as $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American commodities. He also said good progress had been made on issues around technology transfer from American companies to Chinese partners.
Business and labor leaders and government insider panelists agreed that the U.S.-China trade war will be difficult to unravel, but disagreed on how quickly Democrats could -- or should -- resolve outstanding issues on the NAFTA rewrite. The trade panel Oct. 10, hosted by Fiscal Note, included Clete Willems, former White House deputy assistant to the president for international economics, who said that although it pained him to say it, "The political conditions in both countries are just not conducive to the big deal."
The Commerce Department’s Oct. 9 blacklisting of several Chinese technology companies may not impact trade negotiations this week but could lead to significant retaliation against U.S. companies, trade experts said. And while the Trump administration insisted the Entity List decisions were unrelated to trade talks with China, the move unnerved U.S. companies impacted by the trade war that fear Commerce’s announcement could expedite the release of China’s so-called "unreliable entity list."