The U.S. and the United Kingdom completed a “positive” third round of trade negotiations, carried out over the past two weeks ended Aug. 7, and agreed to begin the fourth round next month, the U.K.’s Department for International Trade said in a notice Aug. 12. The negotiations included discussions on technical barriers to trade, rules of origin and trade remedies. U.K. Trade Secretary Liz Truss, in separate discussions, focused on U.S. retaliatory tariffs on U.K. products, including on Scotch whisky, the notice said. Truss said the tariffs are “unacceptable and continued to push for their immediate removal.” The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately comment.

Amina Mohamed, Kenya's Sports, Culture and Heritage minister and its nominee to lead the World Trade Organization, said strengthening rules on industrial subsidies and reforming the Appellate Body are critical for the WTO's continued success.

British Member of Parliament Liam Fox said his experience as United Kingdom trade minister qualifies him to lead the World Trade Organization as director-general. Political skills, not technical ones, are needed in Geneva, he said during a July 30 Washington International Trade Association webinar.

The U.S. said that it has received no details on changes to subsidized loans for Airbus from France and Spain, so “no one can take seriously” that the changes addressed the entirety of the World Trade Organization decision that the subsidies distorted the market. The U.S. made the comments at a Dispute Settlement Committee in Geneva July 29, a Geneva trade official said. The U.S. representative also said the European Union didn't address the other six measures the WTO identified as distorting. The EU had said last week that the changes resolved the case, so the 15% tariffs on Airbus planes and 25% tariffs on other EU exports should be removed immediately (see 2007240057).

The Chinese ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Zhang Xiangchen, said his country is willing to discuss the effects of industrial subsidies on trade -- a topic he called contentious and complex -- but he rejected the outlines of an approach the European Union, the U.S. and Japan agreed to in trilateral statements (see 1901090063).

In testimony in Canada's House of Commons, former government chief negotiator Steve Verheul told politicians that there is no surge in Canadian aluminum exports to the U.S., so a return to 10% tariffs on Canadian exports is not warranted. He said the product mix shifted, but the total exports are not up.

Jesus Seade, who led the USMCA negotiations on behalf of the president-elect in Mexico in 2018, said that while the World Trade Organization is a member-driven organization, the director-general should be more than just a facilitator, especially since the body is in crisis.

Testimony by Liz Truss, the United Kingdom's international trade secretary, revealed that no chapters have been closed yet in negotiations with the U.S., and suggests that barriers to U.S. exports of poultry and beef and price controls on pharmaceutical drugs continue to be sensitive areas for the British. Truss was updating Parliament about the second round of negotiations on a free trade agreement with the U.S.

Mexican companies may struggle to comply with U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement provisions due to uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and confusion about certificate of origin provisions, two former Mexican government officials said. Some Mexican businesses may opt to forgo the preferential treatment under USMCA, which takes effect July 1, and instead pay most favored nation rates on imports until they better understand the agreement’s provisions, the former officials said.

Canada complained at the World Trade Organization that the U.S. has neither proposed a period of time to comply with the ruling on supercalendered paper, nor said whether it will comply with the Dispute Settlement Body ruling at all (see 2002060059). So, as it did in April, Canada is asking for the right to retaliate for the damage done. The complaint was part of the regular Dispute Settlement Body meeting in Geneva on June 29.