U.S. politicians are sending a mixed message on trade with Taiwan, experts said during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a right-of-center think tank mostly focused on foreign policy.
Law firms analyzing the impact of two bills that would ban "forever chemicals" in textiles and cosmetics said that while California's ban is not as broad as the one that passed earlier in Maine, its earlier effective date and the size of the California economy make it consequential.
After saying they were conscious of one year left on their self-imposed deadline, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis "agreed to increase the pace of discussions about the global steel arrangement," according to a readout of the Oct. 13 meeting provided by USTR. The EU and U.S. are working on a way to restrict access to their markets for steel that is higher in embedded greenhouse gas emissions, as well as protecting their markets from exports from countries creating non-economic overcapacity (see 2210130068).
European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, just after their meeting Oct. 13, said they have confidence they can manage their differences over electric vehicle tax credits without the issue turning into a formal trade dispute.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., one of the leading voices in the Senate for free trade, was unable to get changes to the Section 232 statute into the must-pass defense bill that will be taken up during the lame duck session of Congress.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is soliciting comments on how effective Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports have been in convincing China to change its policies "related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation" -- something USTR Katherine Tai has acknowledged the U.S. is not able to do.
The 75 amendments that will be voted on as a package with the Senate's National Defense Authorization Act include the INFORM Consumers Act, a piece of legislation that shifts more responsibility to online marketplaces to root out counterfeit goods.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai drew a distinction between 35% tariffs on Russian goods, which she said are designed to punish that country's war of aggression, and 25% (or 7.5%) tariffs on Chinese goods, which she said are not punishing tariffs.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said concentration of wealth, de-industrialization, the decimation of factory towns and fragile supply chains were consequences of "aggressive liberalization and tariff elimination" over the last 40 years.
The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of proposed rulemaking further refining prohibited practices for demurrage and detention, which is required under the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA).