International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 23-27 in case they were missed.
A Senate effort to constrain the president's power on Section 232 tariffs was not weakened by the White House announcement last week that any tariffs on autos or auto parts would not go into effect against Europe (see 1807250031), Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in a brief hallway interview July 31. Corker said senators were continuing to talk about his bill this week. He said when the announcement first came out, he was concerned that it could take the wind out of the sails of his bill. But, he said, as people have realized that nothing substantive was achieved in that meeting between President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (see 1807260026), interest in taking action remains.
The U.S. trade relationship with China "significantly impacts” Consumer Technology Association member companies, large and small, because they “rely on the global supply chain -- including China -- to conduct business,” said Sage Chandler, CTA vice president-international trade. She asked to appear at Aug. 20-23 public hearings to oppose 10 percent Section 301 tariffs proposed in a July 10 Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice. CTA members identified 302 tariff lines of Chinese imports in the notice, accounting for more than $109 billion in value, for which 10 percent duties “would be detrimental to their business,” Chandler said in her July 27 filing. CTA is still gathering “relevant data” on the tariffs’ possible impact on members, and the numbers she cited may need to be “updated” by the time written comments are due Aug. 17, she said.
The U.S. could be on a "pretty rapid track with the Mexican talks" to close NAFTA, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Indo-Pacific Business Forum July 30. He said that Mexico's role in NAFTA is "intellectually more complicated" than Canada's, and "there are fewer issues with Canada." So, Ross said, if the Mexico side can be solved "we should be able to fill in with Canada." Ross's comments contrast with what U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Senators last week (see 1807260029), when he said that "I don't believe [Canadians] have compromised in the same way the United States has and Mexico has," and he suggested closing the deal with Mexico would force Canada to bend.
President Donald Trump both praised Italian products -- saying he owns some of them -- and complained about the more than $30 billion trade in goods deficit with Italy during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at the White House July 30. Trump said he announced a breakthrough with the president of the European Commission last week, and he said he looks forward to opening new commercial opportunities with Italy "that will reduce our trade deficit substantially and increase our mutual prosperity."
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross pointed to the European Union's interest in working on a trade deal (see 1807250031) that addresses non-tariff barriers and some industrial tariffs as "a real vindication that the president’s trade policy is starting to work." Ross, who was speaking to reporters traveling with the president to Iowa July 26, said Donald Trump's approach is to make it painful for other countries to continue their trade stances.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the effort to get China to change its industrial policy and intellectual property practices will take years, but added that "that's not to say what we're doing now will be in place for years." Lighthizer was testifying July 26 to a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the administration's trade policy, and was pressed again and again on how long tariffs will continue to increase costs on American businesses, and how long retaliatory tariffs will damage their ability to export.
After four months, only 266 product exclusion requests have been granted, 421 were denied, and more than 26,000 are yet to be decided, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., said at a hearing on the Section 232 exclusion process. He called for numerous changes to the process in his opening statement.
President Donald Trump responded to a letter from Mexico's President-Elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (see 1807230011) by emphasizing the importance of the deal while threatening to take alternate paths, in a July 20 note released on July 24. "Successful" NAFTA renegotiations would help the U.S. and Mexican economies, "but only if it can go quickly, because otherwise I must go a much different route," Trump said. "It would not be my preference, but would be far more profitable for the United States and its taxpayers." Trump said a strong relationship between the two countries "will lead to a much stronger and more prosperous Mexico, which frankly would make me very happy!"
President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will "resolve the steel and aluminum issues" with the European Union after the EU agreed to buy more soybeans and liquefied natural gas, and to enter negotiations to drop non-auto industrial tariffs to zero. The EU's retaliatory tariffs will also be "resolved," said Trump.