President Donald Trump tapped Williams & Connolly partner C.J. Mahoney to be deputy U.S. trade representative for Investment, Services, Labor, Environment, Africa, China, and the Western Hemisphere, the White House announced (here).
President Donald Trump on July 19 issued a presidential memorandum (here) continuing for one year the national emergency with respect to transnational criminal organizations. The emergency was set to expire on July 24. Former President Barack Obama on July 24, 2011, declared a national emergency with respect to transnational criminal organizations pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (see 11072705).
Vice President Mike Pence emphasized the importance of U.S. trade with Canada and the need to “work together to address lingering trade disagreements,” during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau July 14 in Providence, Rhode Island, the White House said (here). Pence and Trudeau expressed a shared commitment to update and modernize NAFTA through “constructive renegotiation,” the White House said.
President Donald Trump intends to nominate Stephen Censky to be deputy secretary of agriculture, the White House announced July 13 (here). Censky has been CEO of the American Soybean Association for the last 21 years, and was previously administrator of the Foreign Agriculture Service.
President Donald Trump this week said he might level tariffs and quotas on steel imports, apparently referring to the ongoing Commerce Department-led Section 232 investigation on imports of the metal, according to a White House transcript of remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One released July 13. Trump said “there are two ways” to stop dumped steel imports from China and elsewhere. “Maybe I’ll do both,” he said. “They're dumping steel. Not only China, but others. We're like a dumping ground, OK? They're dumping steel and destroying our steel industry; they've been doing it for decades, and I'm stopping it. It'll stop.” Trump said he has been “going a little bit easier” on any trade-related measures against China “because I’d like to have their help.”
Fifteen former chairpersons of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers sent a letter (here) to President Donald Trump on July 12 urging his administration not to impose tariffs on steel pursuant to the ongoing Commerce Department-led Section 232 investigation into steel imports. “Among us are Republicans and Democrats alike, and we have disagreements on a number of policy issues,” they said. “But on some policies there is near universal agreement. One such issue is the harm of imposing tariffs on steel imports.” The former officials cited “media reports” indicating Trump is considering using his Section 232 authority to impose tariffs on steel because of a “putative threat to national security.” Top source steel countries are allies, including Canada, Mexico, South Korea and Brazil, and higher tariffs would likely harm U.S. relations with “these friendly nations,” after Canadian, United Kingdom, EU, German and Dutch officials have already expressed concerns about possible results of the probe, they said.
President Donald Trump on July 11 sent to the Senate the nomination of Dennis Shea to serve as deputy U.S. trade representative for Geneva, the White House announced (here). Shea is vice chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, and has been chairman or vice chairman each year since 2012, working as a member of the commission since 2007. Shea was previously assistant secretary for policy development and research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
President Donald Trump postponed the termination date of sanctions on the property and interests of the Sudanese government, and of prohibitions on imports from and exports to the country, from July 12 to Oct. 12, the White House said (here). The Office of Foreign Assets Control is continuing a general license broadly authorizing most transactions banned by the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations, but the license doesn’t greenlight transactions prohibited with Sudanese individuals or entities in connection with the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, OFAC said in answers to a list of frequently asked questions (here) posted July 12. Former President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Jan. 13 to lift sanctions on Sudan by July 12 (see 1701130025). “While the Government of Sudan has made some progress in areas identified in [Obama’s] Executive Order 13761, I have decided that more time is needed for this review to establish that the Government of Sudan has demonstrated sufficient positive action across all of those areas,” Trump said in a July 11 message to Congress detailing the changes (here).
President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on July 3 discussed trade issues, including global steel overcapacity, just a few days before the G-20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, starts on July 7, the White House said of the phone call (here).
President Donald Trump reiterated his “determination” to gain more balanced trade relations with U.S. trading partners on a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping July 2, the White House said in an announcement (here). The U.S. had a $350 billion trade deficit in goods with China in 2016.