U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Jayme White headed to Cancun, Mexico, to meet with Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, ahead of the official USMCA Free Trade Commission meeting on July 6.
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The Labor Council of the USMCA discussed several topics, including "key labor policies on violence and discrimination in the workplace," as well as "cooperation and technical assistance projects," and "implementation of the USMCA’s provision related to imports produced with forced labor," at a meeting June 28-29 in Mexico City. The meeting included government representatives who oversee labor issues from all three member countries. The council also discussed "the USMCA’s Labor Chapter implementation and conferred on further opportunities to collaborate on labor priorities as a North America Region," the joint statement from the meeting said. This was the Labor Council's second meeting, after the first took place in June 29, 2021 (see 2106300043).
The U.S. and India announced a deal June 22 that will end India’s retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods while leaving in place the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs that prompted them, and also end six World Trade Organization disputes brought by both the U.S. and India.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments for the North American Competitiveness Committee, it said in a Federal Register notice. The focus areas include "expanding trilateral cooperation" on North American Workforce development issues, "establishing mechanisms for cooperation during emergency situations that affect North American trade flows, including by establishing a joint understanding of critical infrastructure priorities in North America," and any other "additional workstreams," USTR said. Comments are due July 17.
The U.S. invoked the rapid response labor mechanism for a lead, zinc and cooper mine owned by Grupo Mexico, the second time the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has used the USMCA tool outside the auto parts sector.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is asking for comments on how to make sure trade benefits "underserved and marginalized communities" in the U.S., and how trade benefits marginalized communities in foreign countries that export to the U.S.
The U.S. is asking Mexico to review whether an Industrias del Interior (INISA) garment factory near Aguascalientes is coercing workers by favoring workers who support the company's collective bargaining agreement and disciplining -- and dismissing -- workers if they support the union Sindicato de Industrias del Interior. The administration made the announcement June 12. It is the first complaint not in the auto sector.
Countries in the Five Eyes Alliance, plus Japan, have issued a joint declaration on non-market practices and trade related economic coercion that they say "undermine the functioning of and confidence in the rules-based multilateral trading system by distorting trade, investment, and competition and harming relations between countries."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asked the International Trade Commission to produce a report on the greenhouse gas emissions in the domestic steel and aluminum sectors, "which will help to inform discussions with the European Union regarding the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum."
An automotive parts casting foundry, part of a Mexican industrial conglomerate known as Grupo Industrial Saltillo, is the subject of the latest rapid response labor complaint from the U.S., as the administration argues that the approximately 500 workers at the Draxton foundry in Irapuato, Guanajuato, were harassed and intimidated when they tried to organize a new union. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also says the workers had to vote on a contract in 2022 without seeing it, and they still don't have a copy of the contract.