The top trade official in the British government and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said they want to do even more trade and investment between the two countries, even as a free-trade agreement is not the end goal. Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan had hoped that the Biden administration would continue the free trade negotiations started during the Trump administration, but that has not happened. Marjorie Chorlins, who leads the U.S.-U.K. Business Council at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also spoke at the March 21 plenary in Baltimore, saying the business community strongly supports more U.S.-U.K. economic cooperation.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which is leading negotiations with Asian countries on a "fair and resilient trade" pillar in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, published a Federal Register notice requesting comments on what the U.S. should prioritize under that rubric. It also said it welcomes comments on which countries should be included in the IPEF. Comments are due by April 11.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said March 4 she discussed global steel and aluminum excess capacity with Bahrain’s Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Zayed Al-Zayan. Bahrain has the largest aluminum smelter outside China, and some of its products have been subject to American trade remedies.

After anxiety among some Democrats in the House that the union election at an auto parts factory in Matamoros, Mexico, would not be fair, the workers at Tridonex chose the Sindicato Nacional Independiente de Trabajadores de Industrias y Servicios, replacing a captive union that had represented the workers. The AFL-CIO had asked that the election be subject to a rapid response under USMCA, and the AFL-CIO said, "we will continue to support the union’s fight to negotiate a fair contract with the company. At the same time, we call on Mexican authorities to investigate disturbing allegations of bribery by the incumbent protection union in an effort to steal the election."

Leading trade officials from Mexico, Canada and the U.S. talked about how to collaborate on more resilient supply chains during a webinar hosted by a prominent Washington think tank, but the conversation could not avoid some of the touchy issues in the trilateral relationship.

A series of readouts from U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai after Feb. 23 meetings with German officials emphasized how the European Union and the U.S. need to work together to confront "global trade challenges, including those presented by non-market economies." Tai met with Germany's federal minister for economic affairs and climate action, Germany's state secretary for international and EU affairs and the state secretary of the federal foreign office. She said she also spoke about the need to develop resilient supply chains. Tai also met with the leaders of the Transatlantic Business Initiative on Feb 23, and she and the group "agreed that transatlantic trade policy should reflect and promote our common values, including those that support workers and the environment," according to a USTR readout.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking Canada to "abandon any plans" for a digital services tax while countries continue to negotiate international taxation principles, including how to tax companies that derive revenues from a country's population but do not have a physical nexus there.

Meetings between Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White and Ecuador's trade minister, Julio Jose Prado, focused on the U.S. desire for Ecuador to improve its agricultural import licensing system, and Ecuador's concern that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program has lapsed. A joint statement from the two countries released Feb. 18 said they recognized Ecuador is improving efforts to battle illegal fishing, preserve forests and wildlife, fight climate change and marine debris, and end child labor. It said the U.S. discussed next steps to renew the GSP.

In January, some technical fixes had to be made to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule "to conform to amendments adopted by the World Customs Organization" (see 211227003). To now fix a technical error that occurred with that and to ensure that those "amendments do not extend the scope of the additional duties in the Section 301 investigation," the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a notice about two technical modifications to the HTS notes that implement the additional duties. The modifications are effective as of Jan. 27.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative laid out the externalities to other economies of China's state-led economy in a 72-page annual report to Congress. "Since last year’s report, our assessment of China’s record in terms of transitioning to a market economy has not changed," the report said. While the report's framing is about how China complies with World Trade Organization rules, the authors minimized the WTO's ability to constrain China and emphasized that countries must expand domestic trade remedies or develop other tools to deal with China's rise.