U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testified April 16 before the House Ways and Means Committee regarding the Biden administration’s trade policy agenda for 2024. She expressed support for upcoming legislation to renew the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and to close the de minimis imports loophole (see 2404160029), and she detailed some of the administration’s values and aims for the upcoming year. “Our approach is one that addresses and advances the interests of all parts of our economy and does not pit Americans against Americans,” she said.
American and Chinese officials discussed tariffs, export controls and market access issues during the April 2-5 first meetings of the U.S.-China Commercial Issues Working Group, both countries said in readouts after the talks.
Experts invited by Georgetown Law's Center on Inclusive Trade and Development to talk about U.S.-China relations said a truce in the Trump trade war that has continued under President Joe Biden is unlikely, and that the trade war may intensify, no matter who the next president is.
Five senators, from both parties, want to end the 15% tariff on titanium sponge for most favored nations, and introduced a bill to change the tariff line.
House Ways and Means Committee members, in hallway interviews at the Capitol, said they're concerned that the Senate's unwillingness to take up a tax package that passed the House with more than 350 votes will delay movement on bringing back the Generalized System of Preferences trade benefits program.
If Donald Trump is elected to a second presidential term, his administration should focus on communicating better with other governments and American companies about upcoming policy decisions, said Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative.
The Senate passed a resolution that could undo the USDA's approval of imported Paraguayan beef, if the House also votes to end these imports by a veto-proof margin.
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At a political rally in the Dayton, Ohio, suburbs, former President Donald Trump addressed Chinese President Xi Jinping with a threat that if Chinese firms open car assembly plants in Mexico, the U.S. will put a 100% tariff on their products.
A House member who is running for the Senate in Indiana asked the Commerce Department to initiate an investigation on the import of electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries made anywhere in the world.