The International Trade Commission will begin an investigation into what barriers the United Kingdom has to small and medium businesses seeking to export from the United States. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer sent a letter Aug. 3 requesting that a report be reproduced no later than July 31, 2019. The letter said barriers could include burdensome customs procedures, low de minimis thresholds for duties or value added tax, arbitrary standards and lack of transparency on regulations. Lighthizer suggested the ITC consult its report from 2014 on similar barriers in the European Union.
Turkey, which exported about $1.66 billion in goods duty free through the Generalized System of Preferences last year, may be barred from the program after a review at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The value of Turkish imports that come in duty free through GSP has increased by nearly 50 percent in five years, according to USTR data.
In a series of tweets before a campaign rally in suburban Columbus, Ohio, and again on Aug. 5, President Donald Trump said tariffs "are working big time," and "foolish people scream" when his government imposes them. He said because of tariffs, America is winning, and China is "doing poorly against us" for the first time, and other countries' economies are hurting, too. Trump's preferred metric, the trade deficit, is still growing, through June and is up 7 percent compared to the first half of 2017. He said China is spending a fortune trying to convince "our politicians to fight me on tariffs."
The White House said that sanctions on Iranian gold and other precious metals, graphite, aluminum, steel, coal and software used in industrial processes, as well as the country's automotive sector, will go into effect Aug. 7. The announcement came Aug. 6, 90 days after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
The Commerce Department sharply raised countervailing duties against the Resolute Company's exports of Canadian uncoated groundwood paper, and lowered both the antidumping and countervailing duties against Catalyst, while leaving other companies' CVD rates largely unchanged.
Top trade officials from the U.S. and Colombia talked about digital trade and telecommunications, services, agricultural matters, intellectual property, textiles and apparel, and truck scrappage as they evaluated implementation and best use of the bilateral U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, first signed six years ago. "Officials also agreed to continue to work together to ensure effective implementation of, and compliance with, the trade in goods and services, customs, intellectual property rights, labor, and environment obligations of the Agreement," according to an Aug. 2 press release from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The U.S. said progress has been made on Colombia's labor issues identified in a 2017 report, but work remains (see 1701120006).
The Coalition for a Prosperous America, whose chairman is Donald Trump ally Dan DiMicco, said the president should consider vetoing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, the group said in a news release. The Senate unanimously last month (see 1807270003) and passed the House of Representatives 402-0 before that (see 1801170012). The MTB "has flown beneath the radar and is a holdover from the past," said DiMicco, who was a trade adviser to Trump during his presidential campaign, and is a former CEO of steel producer Nucor. "At precisely the moment when the president is tackling foreign trade cheating and trying to create leverage, Congress is again engaging in unilateral trade disarmament. This bill fails to consider that many of the products included could be manufactured in the US.”
The negotiating parties are close to agreement on an environment chapter in NAFTA, Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said after a negotiation session in Washington on Aug. 2. The Mexican team met again with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for almost two hours Aug. 3, and Guajardo told reporters there's a very good probability the two sides can resolve key issues next week, Reuters reported.
Mexico's economy minister is meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Aug. 2, and analysts watching the renewed momentum between Mexico and the U.S. in NAFTA discussions see competing pressures on negotiators. On one side is the need to show results for its tariff hikes, on the other is a deep skepticism of trade deals, the observers said. A source close to the negotiations said Mexico and the U.S. are getting closer on reaching a deal on auto rules of origin -- and that Mexico appreciates the other areas where the U.S. is showing more flexibility.
Two Republicans and one Democrat introduced a bill in the Senate Aug. 1 that would stop a Section 232 tariff if majorities in both chambers don't want the tariff. Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, is the author of the bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala. Portman had been working for weeks to sign up co-sponsors (see 1807130019).