The U.S. and the United Kingdom signed two agreements that ensure both countries’ trade of wine and liquor will continue after the UK leaves the European Union, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Feb. 4. The move extends trading agreements in place between the U.S. and the EU, "to ensure there is no disruption in trade of these products" between the partners once Brexit is final. The UK was the fourth-largest export market for U.S. wine and the largest export market for U.S. spirits in 2017, USTR said. The U.S. and UK under the bilateral distilled spirits agreement will continue to recognize the names Scotch whisky, Irish whisky, Tennessee whisky, Bourbon whisky, and Bourbon, according to a press release.

With less than a month before the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports are scheduled to rise to 25 percent (see 1812140034), resolving the U.S.-China trade dispute “is a tall order, under the best of circumstances,” Baker McKenzie customs lawyer Ted Murphy blogged Monday. “By most accounts, the two sides are still far apart” in their quest to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal by the March 2 deadline, he said. Murphy doubts “a substantive solution will be reached in the next 30 days.” The “question is whether China’s offer to purchase more U.S. products” and impose “some small structural changes” in its trade practices will be sufficient to get the Trump administration to “declare victory” and again postpone the tariff hike while the two sides keep talking, he said.

Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2012 initially led to greater U.S. exports, but overall, its adherence to WTO rules has been disappointing, the U.S. trade representative said in his annual report to Congress. The report, released late Feb. 4, said non-tariff barriers are a greater problem than tariffs. In 2017, the U.S. exported $7 billion in goods to Russia, with aircraft accounting for one-third of the total. The U.S. imported $17 billion in goods, with oil nearly half of that and steel and aluminum about a quarter of the total.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum won't happen until November, but a panel of a State Department envoy, a former Office of the U.S. Trade Representative negotiator, Singapore's ambassador and Google's head of global trade policy talked about what might be accomplished there during a Feb. 5 panel.

The Internet Association criticized the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for seeking to raise de minimis levels on shipments from its neighbors as part of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (see 1901300009). "A consistent, high de minimis threshold benefits the entire American e-commerce system, including thousands of small businesses that use the internet to export and import," the group said in a statement Jan. 30. "USTR’s proposed provision in the implementing legislation would force small businesses to navigate a complicated, confusing net of customs rules.” Businesses have complained that even the concessions won in the text of the new NAFTA are complicated and confusing, because Mexico and Canada have different de minimis levels for sales taxes and for customs duties.

The U.S. trade representative complained about the European Union's intention to bring a case at the World Trade Organization challenging antidumping and countervailing duties on Spanish olives. Antidumping duties are between 16.88 percent and 25.5 percent, and countervailing duties are between 7.52 percent and 27.02 percent (see 1807310076). The USTR said the U.S. International Trade Commission said the actions of Spanish producers resulted in significant job losses and declines in profitability for the U.S. industry. "We believe that the EU’s case is without merit, and we intend to fight it very aggressively,” USTR Robert Lighthizer said Jan. 29, after the EU asked for consultations in Geneva.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will hear from 24 witnesses at a Jan. 29 public hearing on what its priorities should be in negotiating a free trade agreement with Great Britain, once it is free to leave the European Union customs union. The witnesses include representatives from trade groups for agricultural, apparel, express shipping and other services, pharmaceutical, chemical and semiconductor interests, as well as people from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the United States Council for International Business and the AFL-CIO.

Trade ministers from 49 countries and the European Union said they will start World Trade Organization negotiations on electronic commerce, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer lauded the news on Jan. 25. "The United States is pleased that the initial exploratory work on digital trade issues at the WTO in 2018 was productive. The digital economy is a powerful force for global economic growth. The United States is committed to seeking a high-standard agreement that creates strong, market-based rules in this area and reduces the barriers around the world that threaten to undermine the growth of the digital economy, including restrictions on cross-border data flows and data localization requirements," he said.

After the March 1 deadline, President Donald Trump could declare victory in the trade war, or his administration could decide the Chinese have not offered substantial changes in response to America's complaints about industrial policies and discrimination against U.S. firms. "It probably depends on what he's seen on Fox News this morning," Center for Strategic and International Studies' William Reinsch said at a CSIS program on Asia in 2019 on Jan. 23. Still, he said, Trump has a pattern of "lots of bluster, lots of threats, occasional use of a threat, and then at the end of the day, he tends to settle for much less than he asked for."

Regulations.gov, the government website where businesses can see if other companies have objected to their tariff exclusion requests, went down Jan. 16. It's not clear how long it will take workers -- who have been affected by the partial federal government shutdown -- to get the issues resolved and get the site back online. A spokeswoman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the agency continues to work on exclusion requests on items on the first two tranches of the Section 301 tariffs list, and that "the time period to comment will be extended as applicable" because of the outage.