The U.S. and Ukraine will negotiate to update the United States-Ukraine Trade and Investment Cooperation Agreement, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said after meeting Nov. 9 with Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Economy Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the U.S. and Taiwan had two days of productive meetings this week, exchanging views on what needs to be addressed in trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, anticorruption, small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, standards, digital trade, labor, environment, state-owned enterprises, and non-market policies and practices.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking with Mexico’s new economy secretary, told her it's important that the two countries promptly make progress in consultations around U.S. complaints on Mexican energy sector polices. Tai also said it's important that Mexico return to a science- and risk-based regulatory approval process for all agricultural products that use biotechnology, such as genetically modified corn. Mexico is planning to ban GMO corn, which would cut off a volume of U.S. exports -- and Tai said it's important to avoid such a disruption.

The U.S. and Taiwan will hold in-person "conceptual discussions" on the U.S.-Taiwan trade initiative in New York Nov. 8-9. The trade initiative (see 2208180042) is similar to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, in which Taiwan isn't a participant.

There's a consensus on the need for reform at the World Trade Organization, according to Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for WTO and Multilateral Affairs Andrea Durkin, but since member countries have different ideas about what reform is, and different ideas about how to achieve it, it will be a "significant challenge" to make changes in Geneva.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will not open a portal for comments about the economic impact of Section 301 tariffs until Nov. 15 (see 2210120051), but it has now posted the questionnaire, which has a dozen pages of questions, and will allow commenters to target specific Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes.

The top trade official from the EU, European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said the incentives for the green transition in the Inflation Reduction Act appear to discriminate against automotive, battery, renewables and energy-intensive businesses operating in the EU. "It will not be easy to fix it -- but fix it we must," he said during an Oct. 31 speech at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Prague. He also said, "This is an issue of concern for many countries and businesses, which I have raised with our US partners over these past weeks, and it featured prominently in today's discussions."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative explained why it declined a petition to investigate alleged export targeting violations by the Mexican government and produce exporters in a Federal Register notice released Oct. 27. There wasn't much more detail than the original release announcing the decision. The notice says: "Due to the complexities of the factual and legal issues raised in the petition, the U.S. Trade Representative could not conclude during the 45-day statutory review period that an investigation would be effective and is not opening an investigation at this time."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in a Federal Register notice published Oct. 26, asked for applications from people who would like to serve on panels that review final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty proceedings and amendments to AD/CVD statutes of a USMCA Party. These people would be on the roster from April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024. Applications are due by Nov. 30, and can be submitted at www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2022-0015.

The U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council will next meet on Dec. 5. The two sides announced this week. The council’s third meeting will be held in the Washington, D.C., area and comes after the second meeting, held in May in Paris, where the two sides agreed to several export control and investment screening initiatives (see 2205160033).