The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee said the delay in extending the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and passing a new Miscellaneous Tariff Bill “has real consequences for our businesses and families, especially right now.”
Although the Aluminum Association opposed the imposition of 10% tariffs on imported aluminum in 2018, now the trade group doesn't want those tariffs lifted entirely. The tariffs have already been removed on Canada, the No. 1 source of imported aluminum. “We were not in favor of the drastic move of putting [Section] 232 in” and “we would not be in favor of the drastic move of removing 232 in one fell swoop,” Aluminum Association CEO Tom Dobbins said.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the U.S. has made progress on combating illegally trafficked timber in trade agreements and regional dialogues, and that global rules on that issue and on subsidies that lead to overfishing can be achieved. She also suggested that she could help negotiate global rules for agriculture related to carbon capture and the use of cover crops.
The president of the U.S.-China Business Council told an online audience of customs brokers that he sees them as the problem solvers in trade, and that they're going to continue to have plenty of problems to tackle over the next few years. Craig Allen, who spoke to the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America April 14, said that the U.S.-China relationship, while intensely interdependent economically, is marked by mistrust and antagonism, and “the trend lines are not good.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heard from 16 unions, UNITE HERE and the AFL-CIO on their wish for the U.S. to drop its opposition to a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement waiver for COVID-19 vaccines (see 2102260053). In a readout of the April 13 online meeting, the agency said: “Ambassador Tai reiterated that the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priority is saving lives and ending the pandemic in the United States and around the world. The Ambassador conveyed the Administration’s commitment to increasing Covid-19 vaccine production and distribution, both at home and worldwide.”
At a time when hurricane damage, violence and poverty are driving more Central Americans to the U.S., consultants, advocates and former diplomats say the Central America Free Trade Agreement, or CAFTA, needs changes to spur development in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Those Northern Triangle countries are the ones sending large numbers of asylum seekers to the U.S. in the last few years. Kellie Meiman Hock, a McLarty Associates managing partner who led the April 14 panel hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, noted that when CAFTA was ratified more than 15 years ago, the hope was that it would bring more economic development to Central America. But instead, trade from the region has been flat.
European professors speaking about the future of the trans-Atlantic trade relationship said that while it's logical for democratic, rule-of-law countries to coordinate trade policy against an authoritarian rival, that's easier said than done.
Toasts not Tariffs, a coalition of 48 trade groups in the liquor and wine industries, restaurants and retailers, wrote to the commerce and agriculture secretaries and the U.S. trade representative to urge them to convince the European Union and the United Kingdom to lift 25% tariffs on U.S. whiskey exports. The April 12 letter did not mention that those tariffs were in response to 25% tariffs on steel exports from the EU and the U.K., and that lifting the tariffs on steel would end tariffs on whiskey.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would join the resolution introduced last month by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, urging the resolution of trade negotiations with the United Kingdom (see 2103250040). “This is a very important trading relationship we've got to get settled right away,” Grassley said on a phone call with reporters April 13. Removing barriers for farmers must be a part of any U.K. free trade agreement, Grassley said. The only trade priority he would rank higher is ensuring China makes its promised purchases under phase one, he said.
The government is not trying to trip up importers by obscuring which exporters have been targeted under a withhold release order, a former top CBP trade official said, but the Trade Secrets Act prohibits CBP from releasing manufacturer IDs when the seizure was done under a regional WRO, as with Xinjiang cotton.