The Senate Finance Committee's top Republican, along with seven of his colleagues, accused Office of the U.S. Trade Representative officials of misleading congressional staff on what they would be negotiating on digital trade at the World Trade Organization. "As recently as this weekend, USTR officials told congressional staff that they had not abandoned support for negotiating the free data flow commitments at issue," Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and his colleagues wrote Oct. 26.
An analysis of the Rapid Response Mechanism, aimed at bolstering the rights of Mexican workers in USMCA, says it's early yet to see if it raises wages and employment in export-intensive sectors, and if the U.S. is successful in replicating the approach in other trade agreements.
The Senate Finance Committee's chairman and its top Republican jointly told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that she must make clear that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will immediately respond to Canada enacting any sort of digital services tax, "using available trade tools." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, wrote that in italics, for emphasis. "When you take these steps, you will do so with our full support," the two wrote Oct. 10.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai laid out her priorities for reforming the World Trade Organization, providing concrete options that the U.S. and other WTO members can take to reinvigorate the international trade forum. In a Sept. 22 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Tai said that the biggest tenets of WTO reform revolve around "improving transparency," rebuilding the body's ability to negotiate new rules for new challenges and dispute settlement reform.
An official from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative told Bangladesh "that supporting workers’ rights, including freedom of association and collective bargaining, is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration," according to a USTR readout of the Sept. 20 U.S.-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement Council meeting.
The U.S. is asking that a rapid response labor mechanism panel decide whether Grupo Mexico's decision to hire replacement workers after a strike is a violation of union rights covered by the USMCA. The treaty says that the panel must be formed in three days after a request, and that the panel has 30 days to make a determination. This is the first time Mexico and the U.S. have disagreed on remediation after the U.S. filed a rapid response labor complaint, and the first time the U.S. called for a panel.
The U.S. has initiated the formation of a dispute settlement panel over Mexico's decree to not allow biotech corn for tortillas and directive to the administration to gradually substitute genetically modified corn in processed foods and in animal feed.
The U.S. and Mexico this week resolved a complaint involving workers' rights at the Draxton auto parts foundry in Irapuato, Guanajuato, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced July 31, marking the fifth time the countries agreed on a formal course of remediation under the USMCA's Rapid Response Labor Mechanism.
A readout from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the latest round of talks between the trade representative and her EU counterpart on a steel and aluminum deal suggested she does not think the EU is thinking big enough. The U.S. and the EU are trying to agree on a system that would preference steel and aluminum made with a lower carbon footprint, and, at the same time, a system that would keep metals produced through non-market excess capacity out of their countries.
Importers of apparel from Africa and exporters of auto parts, apparel, food and metal from South Africa are making the case to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act ahead of schedule, renew it for at least 10 years, if not 20, and, some are arguing directly, restore Ethiopia's eligibility.