Dispute settlement understanding talks among World Trade Organization members has been very "intense," though the large issues remain unresolved, Maria Pagan, deputy U.S. trade representative and chief of mission in the Geneva office, said Nov. 20. Speaking at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the upcoming 13th Ministerial Conference, Pagan said discussions started by acknowledging the different parties' interests as opposed to putting text on the table and hashing out the deal.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on a World Trade Organization complaint filed by Argentina in May. Argentina is challenging the U.S. antidumping duties on oil country tubular goods from the country, and in particular the final determination of dumping from the Commerce Department and the final injury determination by the International Trade Commission. Comments are due Dec. 22.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is inviting comments on how USMCA is working in the automotive goods arena, "including the implementation and enforcement of the USMCA rules of origin for automotive goods" and whether the accord's automotive provisions "are effective in light of technological and production advances." Comments can be submitted through Jan. 17 in docket number USTR-2023-0013.
The text of a recent letter sent to the White House by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., suggests that they have been told there will be reductions in Section 301 tariffs, and they said in the letter that they have serious concerns that these reductions "will enable China and other global competitors to resume their anti-competitive activities without consequences. While not the subject of interagency review, we share similar concerns about reductions in 232 tariffs, as well as related actions that would undermine American steel and aluminum producers as a result of negotiations with the European Union on the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum."
A joint statement by the leaders of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework countries said the trade pillar has made progress, and the White House said they will continue negotiations "to facilitate trade, advance workers’ rights through strong and enforceable labor standards, strengthen environmental protections, align our regulatory procedures, promote a fair and inclusive digital economy, deepen our technical assistance and economic cooperation, and advance inclusivity in our trade policy."
Three-quarters of the Republican majority on the House Ways and Means Committee, along with five committee Democrats, told the U.S. trade representative that they oppose her "decision to abandon important bipartisan digital trade proposals at the World Trade Organization (WTO). This action, which was made without sufficient consultation with Congress, runs counter to the interests of American workers and businesses of all sizes and cedes more leverage to other foreign powers, including the Peoples’ Republic of China, that seek to write the rules of the 21st-century digital economy. We urge the administration to reconsider its approach."
The White House said it will ask the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to "pursue effective and meaningful remediation of labor rights violations or to address gaps in labor rights protections," and asked USTR and the Department of Labor to develop new tools and strategies to address these gaps.
The Commerce-led pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework -- tax and anti-corruption, climate and supply chain -- are all completed or all-but-completed, but the U.S. chose not to talk about which parts of the trade pillar have reached agreement during a round of IPEF negotiations in San Francisco. The administration also is making no projections about when the trade pillar, led by the U.S. trade representative, might be completed.
The trade pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which already was being criticized for not being ambitious enough, is not going to be finished as quickly as the pillars run by the Commerce Department on tax and corruption, supply chains and climate, the administration acknowledged as Asian leaders meet in San Francisco.
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