Major automakers and battery makers disagreed about how granular the EV battery supply chain rules should be, but most agreed that diverging from the battery timeline requirement, which begins in 2023, would allow far more vehicles to qualify for tax credits, thereby accelerating adoption of cleaner cars, trucks and SUVs.
FDA said its final rule on record-keeping for high-risk foods has been sent to the Office of the Federal Register, and should be published within a week or two, in an email Nov. 7.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking with Mexico’s new economy secretary, told her it's important that the two countries promptly make progress in consultations around U.S. complaints on Mexican energy sector polices. Tai also said it's important that Mexico return to a science- and risk-based regulatory approval process for all agricultural products that use biotechnology, such as genetically modified corn. Mexico is planning to ban GMO corn, which would cut off a volume of U.S. exports -- and Tai said it's important to avoid such a disruption.
The U.S. and Taiwan will hold in-person "conceptual discussions" on the U.S.-Taiwan trade initiative in New York Nov. 8-9. The trade initiative (see 2208180042) is similar to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, in which Taiwan isn't a participant.
On passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, electric vehicles manufactured overseas were instantly disqualified from the $7,500 tax credit. In January, even cars manufactured in the U.S. will be eligible only if they are below certain price thresholds, and meet battery component local content thresholds. Those thresholds ramp up in 2024, as do those for the critical minerals in batteries.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the lead proponent of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the Senate, wrote a critical letter to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), saying some of their ideas for customs modernization are designed to weaken the UFLPA.
The International Trade Commission, which is tasked with measuring the economic impact of the USMCA's stringent auto rules of origin, heard from auto industry players in the U.S. and Mexico that satisfying the labor value content audits is next-to-impossible.
There's a consensus on the need for reform at the World Trade Organization, according to Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for WTO and Multilateral Affairs Andrea Durkin, but since member countries have different ideas about what reform is, and different ideas about how to achieve it, it will be a "significant challenge" to make changes in Geneva.
Panelists from the three countries in the USMCA -- including the chief negotiator for Mexico in what became the USMCA -- said they expect, or hope for, the auto rules of origin to change four years from now, as part of the six-year review of the trade deal.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will not open a portal for comments about the economic impact of Section 301 tariffs until Nov. 15 (see 2210120051), but it has now posted the questionnaire, which has a dozen pages of questions, and will allow commenters to target specific Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes.