Former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman said the standards set by the World Trade Organization have been under stress for 15 years, and that its principles of global non-discrimination, bound tariff levels and restrictions on what can count as a bilateral or regional trade deal are dead for good.
White House trade official Peter Navarro will need to be sidelined for a trade deal between the U.S. and India to emerge, according to Mark Linscott, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for South and Central Asia. Navarro's comments about India have inflamed the conflict, Linscott said, and have made trade negotiations more difficult.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., a member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, told International Trade Today that Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., is looking to pass a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act "now that we got the big, beautiful bill through," adding that Smith has wanted to do this "for a while."
The Senate Finance Committee approved Bryan Switzer to be a deputy U.S. trade representative for Asia, textiles, investment, services, and intellectual property on Sept. 4, on a 15-12 vote. The confirmation vote will be held in the full Senate.
The EU Parliament is debating a proposal to lower its own tariffs, operating as though the U.S. is upholding its end of the U.S.-EU agreement, despite apparent U.S. failure to enact promised tariff reductions on EU goods. On Sept 1, the EU Parliament held an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on International Trade to discuss the legislation and the deal as a whole.
CBP late last week provided guidance on the extension of Section 301 product exclusions for goods imported from China, noting that ACE functionality for the acceptance of these exclusions is available.
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Australian small businesses were given too little time to comply with the U.S. decision to end the de minimis exemption for low-value imports (see 2508280062), said Don Farrell, Australia’s trade minister. Farrell said he raised Australia’s "disappointment" earlier in the week with U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Jennifer Thornton, adding that the move is mostly hurting “mum and dad operations that have had a successful product going into” the U.S.
The U.S. invoked the rapid response labor mechanism under USMCA to investigate a Mexican meat processing facility. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that it had received a petition alleging that workers at the Alimentos Grole facility in Mexico are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The U.S. has therefore suspended liquidation of unliquidated entries of goods from the facility.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is extending by another three months certain current exclusions to its Section 301 investigation related to U.S. trade with China.