The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative highlighted a handful of gains for U.S. exports in Japan, South Korea, Africa and South America while also highlighting irritants with China, India and Vietnam, in its annual National Trade Estimate Report. Aside from the lowering of trade barriers achieved in the rewritten U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS), USTR noted that in January 2018, Japan recognized U.S. automobile safety standards for front and rear crashes, "thereby reducing the cost and burden for U.S. auto exporters." It also praised some anti-piracy actions in Peru and counterfeit seizures in Argentina. On the barriers side, the report again laid out the case against China that the Section 301 technology transfer enforcement action is based on. It also complained that India's price controls on knee implants and coronary stents, along with a refusal to allow U.S. companies to withdraw some products from the market, forces the U.S. to sell some products at a loss. "India has indicated it may apply similar price controls on additional medical devices."
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
Even though officials have trumpeted the rewrite of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) as historic and a win, President Donald Trump said in Ohio that he may hold back on signing it until talks with North Korea are held. The March 29 speech was supposed to be about infrastructure, but Trump spent at least half the time talking about other subjects, including trade.
Steel and aluminum tariffs and the announcement of tariffs on Chinese goods are pushing the world toward a global trade war, World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo said March 28 on BBC. But there's still time to avoid a trade war, he said, because, for the most part, countries have merely announced tariffs, not imposed them, and are negotiating. "The fact is, that when you announce certain types of measures, and others deem that those measures are not in compliance with their obligations, and threaten to retaliate, that is a problem. It is a big problem. I don’t think anybody believes this is something minor, even in the U.S. administration," he said. "People are beginning to understand, I hope, how serious this is, and the kind of impact it could have on the global economy," he said, and that's why, he thinks, the U.S. is negotiating with countries around the world to find ways to avoid imposing steel and aluminum tariffs.
Rwandan apparel exports will no longer receive benefits through the African Growth and Opportunity Act, because the small African country refused to back down from its coming ban on used clothing imports. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative intends to suspend duty-free treatment for "all AGOA-eligible apparel products from Rwanda in 60 days." Increased tariffs on Rwandan apparel will have a minimal effect on trade figures between Rwanda and the U.S., according to the AGOA website. The U.S. exported $75 million worth of goods to Rwanda in 2016, and imported $26 million. Apparel is not in the top five categories for Rwandan exports to the U.S., and total apparel exports to the U.S. from there are under $300,000 annually. In 2016, $18 million, or 69 percent of all Rwandan exports to the U.S., were coffee.
The ranking Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee and Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., say they are not satisfied with the U.S. trade representative's response to their complaints last summer on inadequate consultation (see 1708040031). In their new letter, sent March 28, Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., and Dingell say that USTR Robert Lighthizer "failed to respond to the specific issues that we raised." The Democrats did not share the letter they were reacting to.
An agreement in principle on NAFTA is reachable in the "next little bit," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a March 28 interview on CNBC. According to media reports from Inside U.S. Trade and from Canada, Lighthizer's team has abandoned a U.S. content requirement for rules of origin in autos, and replaced it with a proposal that an 85 percent North American content requirement can be fulfilled in part by giving credit for higher wages. Some reports pegged that wage at $15 an hour, others at somewhere in the $13 to $17 an hour range. Either would be easily met by most U.S. and Canadian auto parts and auto assembly plants.
An additional two presidential proclamations related to Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel were published March 28 in the Federal Register. One new detail was released on how companies can make arguments that the steel or aluminum they import should be excluded from tariffs. The proclamation said the commerce secretary can take "into account the regional availability of particular articles, the ability to transport articles within the United States, and any other factors as the Secretary deems appropriate."
Panelists at the Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed that the process to determine whether imports violate domestic companies' intellectual property works well, but said once an exclusion order is issued by the International Trade Commission, enforcement can be tricky.
South Korea agreed to change "how it conducts verification of origin for U.S. products," and establish a working group to resolve future origin verification issues, as part of a deal to renegotiate U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement announced March 25. The changes come on top of an agreement by South Korea to open its auto market by lifting caps on imports that don't match South Korean safety standards (see 1803260005), according to additional details of the agreement in principle released by the U.S. Trade Representative the evening of March 27. The preliminary deal also makes other changes on auto industry trade, including that:
Canada said consultations with the United States over softwood lumber antidumping and countervailing duties have been unsuccessful since they began on Jan. 17, and asked for the formation of two panels, one for CVD and one for AD duties. The request was made at a World Trade Organization meeting on March 27. The U.S. blocked formation of the panels, but according to WTO rules, it can only do so temporarily. If Canada asks for a panel at the next Dispute Settlement Body meeting, a panel will be formed to judge the dispute.