U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)

Since the NAFTA rewrite was completed, it's been "fascinating" to hear from the groups who have always opposed trade deals in the past, said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, the Democrat from Oregon who leads the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. While he said that union leaders aren't comfortable with NAFTA 2.0, and they want changes to it, they "will kind of acknowledge they don't want to withdraw" from NAFTA, and say that "NAFTA 2.0 represents an improvement."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was told by the administration that no trade deal with China will be reached this week, potentially paving the way for President Donald Trump to increase tariffs by May 10. Pelosi, interviewed May 8 during a Washington Post Live webcast, said she was told by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on May 6 that China planned to “take a walk” from any agreement proposed this week. A rejected deal from China could result in increased tariffs on Chinese goods; the tariffs already are set to rise from 10 percent to 25 percent on May 10 (see 1905050001). When asked if she is confident there is any way a deal could get done this week, Pelosi said no. “Let me just say that, first of all, I never believed the Chinese were going to honor what they said they were going to do,” she said.

Washington state Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene, who is for free trade, told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that she's becoming increasingly concerned about his position on de minimis. "I was troubled to see that the report you sent to Congress identifying changes to U.S. law suggested that you would seek to amend the statute that sets the de minimis threshold in the United States," she wrote in a follow-up to his Ways and Means Committee appearance in February,. "Do you plan to include language in the draft [U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement] implementing legislation that would reduce the US de minimis threshold? If so, what specific changes will you seek?"

The White House said that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had productive meetings with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He. "The discussions remain focused toward making substantial progress on important structural issues and rebalancing the US-China trade relationship," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill suspension on liquid crystal display (LCD) panel assemblies should be made permanent in order to reverse a "tariff inversion" that makes imported finished TVs cheaper than the LCD panels, Element Electronics said in comments to the International Trade Commission. Last year, the ITC sought comments on the MTB process and "domestic industry sectors or specific domestic industries that might benefit from permanent duty suspensions and reductions, either through a unilateral action of the United States or through negotiations for reciprocal tariff agreements, with a particular focus on inequities created by tariff inversions." The company said that while it "supports free and fair trade, the current US tariff structure is not fair and does not provide a level playing field for American workers."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's proposal to tariff up to $11 billion worth of goods from the EU as part of a long-running dispute over aircraft subsidies (see 1904090031) adds some new tension to an already fraught trade relationship. Although the trade dispute resolution that the U.S. is asking for pertains to large commercial airplanes, it goes far beyond aerospace, hitting cheeses and other food, wine, clothing and building materials. “This case has been in litigation for 14 years, and the time has come for action. The Administration is preparing to respond immediately when the WTO issues its finding on the value of U.S. countermeasures,” USTR Robert Lighthizer said in a news release.

The World Trade Organization ruled that the U.S. did not comply with a previous order to end a Washington state subsidy for Boeing manufacturing, which, the Appellate Body said, cost Airbus sales in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014, to Fly Dubai, Delta, Icelandair and Air Canada.

The general counsel to the U.S. trade representative said that after five trilateral meetings with the European Union and Japan, the countries have reached "general agreement" on how the World Trade Organization should address subsidies and state-owned enterprises. He said it's not just U.S. blue-collar workers who have grown dissatisfied with globalization, and pointed to the new populist government in Italy, Brexit and the Yellow Vest movement in France.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who is leading the China trade talks, downplayed the possibility that President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign a trade agreement a month from now. Lighthizer, who testified before the House Ways and Means Committee Feb. 27, was asked by Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., if he sees a package coming in the next few weeks. "I’m not foolish enough to think there’s going to be one negotiation that’s going to change all the practices in China," Lighthizer replied. "At the end of this negotiation, if we’re successful, there'll be a signing." But that's the beginning of a long process to monitor China's compliance with what it promises to do.

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.