NEW YORK -- Most apparel was spared from Section 301 tariffs until September, when a large swath of imports was hit with 15 percent additional tariffs, though a few categories were on List 3, and are facing an additional 25 percent. Between the two rounds, 77 percent of apparel is subject to 301 tariffs. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is now tasked with considering exclusion requests for List 3, and Assistant USTR for Textiles Bill Jackson said that volume is “astounding" -- about 30,000 requests. Only 600 of those are in tariff code chapters 50 to 60, he said, and fewer than 20 have been granted approval so far.

Vice President Mike Pence, even as he called China "a strategic and economic rival," said that the U.S. wants to keep talking after the phase 1 trade deal is done, in order "to bring about long-overdue structural reforms in our economic relationship. And as I heard again from him this morning, President Trump remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached."

President Donald Trump, just before meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, answered a reporter's question on whether a trade announcement is coming by saying: "Bob Lighthizer, who's right here, was negotiating with India and their very capable representatives. And I think very soon we'll have a trade deal. We'll have the larger deal down the road a little bit, but we will have a trade deal very soon."

President Donald Trump was silent on trade frictions when he appeared before tens of thousands of Indian-Americans in Houston on Sept. 22. On stage with him, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi only hinted at a possible solution to India's expulsion from the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program (see 1909060029). According to a transcript of the event issued by the White House, Modi said that over the next two to three days, he and Trump would discuss economic issues. "I hope that from these discussions as well we will have very positive results," he said. "By the way, President Trump calls me a tough negotiator. However, he himself is quite an expert in the 'art of the deal.' And I am learning quite a lot from him."

President Donald Trump, while visiting a southern border wall construction site near San Diego Sept. 18, told a reporter that while he could impose a 5 percent tariff on everything Mexico exports to pay for wall construction, he is "thrilled" with Mexico's migration control measures. "If I took 5 percent -- 5 percent tariff for six months -- that pays for the entire wall," he said, adding that "at this moment, I don’t want to do that because I’m really happy with what Mexico is doing."

President Donald Trump told reporters that the negotiating meeting planned for September with the Chinese "is still on." He told reporters on Sept. 2 that "that hasn’t changed. They haven’t changed and we haven’t. We’ll see what happens."

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke's presidential campaign released a detailed trade agenda that talked about how he would undo some of what he called President Donald Trump's "disastrous trade war," and how he would advance trade liberalization, if he were elected.

A Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson denied knowledge for a second straight day of China's top trade negotiators phoning their U.S. counterparts over the weekend urging the resumption of talks toward a comprehensive trade deal, as President Donald Trump claimed they had on the sidelines of the G-7 summit. “I'm not aware of the two phone calls over the weekend that the U.S. side talked about,” the spokesperson said Aug. 27. “The two sides have held 12 rounds of high-level consultations and the two teams have remained in contact,” he said. “Regrettably, however, the U.S. recently decided to add new tariffs on Chinese goods as a measure to impose maximum pressure, which is not constructive at all as it serves no one's interests.” China hopes the U.S. “will remain calm, return to reason, and immediately stop its wrong approach.” The spokesman declined to answer a reporter's question about when the next round of negotiations will take place. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.

Derek Scissors, a China scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has been arguing for decoupling from China for years. He says whether President Donald Trump wins a second term, or a Democrat replaces him, it's likely tech companies will have to change their supply chains and reverse the international approach to research and development. Scissors said in an interview that while apparel and other low-value goods manufacturers were already moving to cheaper countries in Asia, consumer technology firms were happy in China before the trade war began. "You could easily get a Democratic administration that wants to get tech out of China," he said. "Biden's people say they want that."

France's President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at a press conference at the G-7 meeting Aug. 26, said that the U.S. and France have agreed they will work together to reach an agreement in 2020 on modernizing the international tax rules. Macron, who was speaking in French, said that the 3 percent digital services tax is not designed to punish any large companies. Rather, he said, "it's to fix the problem. And there are also plenty of French companies that will be touched by this tax."