Nearly 750 organizations and businesses gave input to the administration on trade barriers or subsidies that prevent them from reaching their sales potential.
Although the "system is broken," the U.S. should "unequivocally" stay in the World Trade Organization, said Maria Pagan, former deputy U.S. trade representative to Geneva.
Jennifer Thornton, who recently led the Business Roundtable's advocacy on trade policy, has joined the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as general counsel. Before going to the trade group that represents America's largest companies, she was trade counsel to Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., when they were in the minority on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Among more than 700 submissions to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative -- as the administration seeks to quantify the cost to American exporters and producers of trade barriers and unfair subsidies -- were just over a dozen from trade groups representing foreign companies, American chambers of commerce specific to foreign markets, and foreign governments.
Nicholas Lamp, academic director of international law programs at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, told an audience of lawyers at Georgetown Law School that he questioned the premise of the panel he was speaking on -- that Canada and Mexico's approaches to trade with China would influence the future of USMCA.
Former CBP official Felicia Pullam has joined the newly created Center for Trade, Investment and Market Access within APCO International, an advisory firm. Pullam was most recently executive director of CBP's Office of Trade Relations.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced the Prioritizing Offensive Agricultural Disputes and Enforcement Act, with the aim of stopping what he called unfair subsidies in India and China for their domestic rice farmers. He was joined on the bill by Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., John Boozman, R-Ark., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.
The reciprocal tariffs the Trump administration has promised will present a challenge for CBP to enforce, trade lawyers said during a webinar presented by Baker McKenzie on Feb. 20.
A dairy exporters trade group and a former USMCA negotiator say the state-to-state dispute panels under the NAFTA replacement are only a partial success.
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).