In a report on how Russia is living up to its World Trade Organization commitments -- a report produced every other year for Congress -- the U.S. trade representative wrote that Russia has expanded import substitution to state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, including a ban on imported equipment.
After the EU decided to extend its suspension of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskey, motorcycles and other products, several senators took credit for pushing the U.S. trade representative to achieve that result.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a longtime advocate for sugar policy revisions and increased sugar imports, asked the Agriculture Department and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative "to swiftly implement recommendations made by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its recent report, 'Sugar Program: Alternative Methods for Implementing Import Restrictions Could Increase Effectiveness'" (see 2310310063). The report, which noted that raw sugar imports haven't filled the tariff rate quotas in any of the past 27 years, recommended USDA evaluate alternative methods of allocating raw sugar TRQs, and that USTR consider other allocation methods that would meet World Trade Organization obligations.
A senator who is pushing against reductions in the scope of the Section 301 tariff action against China (see 2311210048) said that while he "had some good conversations with the administration about it," he doesn't know when the administration will announce the results of its review.
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The U.S. will grant new Section 232 exclusions for steel and aluminum imports from the EU as part of a deal that will also extend the tariff rate quotas on EU steel and aluminum and avoid EU retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.
Former trade negotiators, think tank trade advocates, and a current political appointee at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative grappled with whether turning away from tariff-lowering free trade agreements is wise or misguided, whether years of globalization from 1995-2015 led to prosperity or economic carnage, and what type of issues should be tackled in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework or other trade deals.
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative asked Mexico to investigate Fujikura Automotive Mexico's factory in Piedras Negras, which it says may be blacklisting workers who were active in the union at Manufacturas VU. Manufacturas VU was the target of two rapid response labor mechanism findings under USMCA, and closed rather than implement the remediation plan that Mexico and the U.S. required it to do to maintain tariff benefits under the pact (see 2310100066).
Fourteen senators, led by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., demanded that the Biden administration "set a clear deadline" for Mexico to enforce its 2019 joint agreement on steel and aluminum. That agreement lifted 25% tariffs on Mexican steel but said that the countries would monitor for export surges.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative moved Bryant Trick from acting assistant to assistant USTR for Europe and the Middle East, it said in a Dec. 11 news release. Prior to taking on the acting role in September, Trick, who has been at USTR for over 15 years, was deputy assistant USTR for Korea, USTR said.