With just four weeks until many of the rules for subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act are scheduled to begin, Europeans continue to press for a strategy that includes European manufacturers rather than preferencing the North American auto industry -- and Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said, "We are leaving this meeting slightly more optimistic than we were entering this meeting."
A readout of a Dec. 1 meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro, a new appointee, said Tai "reiterated the importance" of Mexico imposing a ban on the import of goods made with forced labor. Tai also said it's urgent consultations over what the U.S. sees as discriminatory investment policies in Mexico's energy sector make "meaningful progress."
Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced a bill that would refund tariffs on imports that were hit with 25% tariffs during the Airbus-Boeing dispute, and also would prevent tariffs from being applied to goods on the water in the future.
After a vote to add sick leave days to the railroad workers' contract garnered a majority, but didn't reach the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate, the Senate voted 81-15 to impose the previously negotiated contract on the 12 railroad unions. Four of those unions, including the largest one, had been threatening a strike on Dec. 9, which would have disrupted 40% of cargo transport. The other unions would have honored the picket lines.
President Joe Biden, at a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, called the language on critical mineral sourcing in the Inflation Reduction Act a glitch, and said the U.S. can tweak the IRA in ways "that can fundamentally make it easier for European countries to participate, and/or be on their own."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a conference that Canada had to talk the U.S. out of structuring its Inflation Reduction Act electric vehicle incentives so that they were tied solely to U.S. production.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would impose the contract that eight rail unions approved but four rejected, a contract that protects health insurance benefits and increases pay 24% across four years, with more than half of those pay increases applied retroactively, since the last contract expired in mid-2020.
Lawyers from BakerHostetler that represent the Conseil de l’industrie forestière du Québec and the Ontario Forest Industries Association are using a Commerce Department comment process for softwood lumber subsidies to argue once again that the countervailing duty case against Canadian lumber exports contradicts the USMCA Environment Chapter commitments and Biden administration environment and social justice priorities.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who will be meeting later this week with French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, released a readout of a video call the two had, in which she and her counterpart ''discussed France’s concerns over certain provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Ambassador Tai and Minister Le Maire agreed that the U.S. and European Union should work together to deepen the bilateral understanding of the legislation, which makes historic investments in green technology and clean energy in order to fight the climate crisis."
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the primary movers behind the Chips Act, told an audience that more domains need policymakers' attention so that they don't wake up to find that China has become dominant in an important emerging technology. He noted that before becoming a politician, he "was in the telecommunication space," and said that realizing that China is dominating 5G with two heavily subsidized champion companies was the "final wake-up call" that engagement and deeper trade with China is not the right way to go.