President Donald Trump announced his intention to use tariffs to force countries to accept planes full of their deported citizens, as well as new sector specific targets beyond steel and aluminum.
Dan Stirk, former chief counsel for litigation in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, has joined Picard Kentz as counsel in the international trade practice, the firm announced. Stirk served as an attorney-adviser at USTR for nearly 18 years, covering World Trade Organization and free trade agreement dispute settlement proceedings, compliance proceedings and arbitration, the firm said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, as instructed by the America First trade policy presidential memo, is undertaking a review of the phase one agreement with China, it said. That review is due to the president April 1.
The Trump administration could be laying the groundwork to take broad and sweeping action on trade policy around April 1 when an internal review on U.S. trade policy is due, according to trade lawyers from Barnes Richardson.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, who voted against USMCA because he felt it moved too much in the direction of managed trade, told an audience at a Council on Foreign Relations event Jan. 23 that, despite all of his talk of tariffs, "a lot of folks will be surprised at the extent to which President [Donald] Trump will pursue broad, aggressive tariffs."
When the House Ways and Means Committee asked all House members for their opinions on what should belong in the tax cut bill the Republicans are shaping, Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., used the opportunity to talk about both taxes and trade.
On his first day in office, the president directed the heads of agencies that deal with trade, tariff collection and trade remedies to:
Two Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee asked Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative nominee Jamieson Greer to "commit to putting in place a transparent and objective process that protects America’s small businesses and workers" if they decide to grant exclusions to new tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative concluded that China's intervention in its shipbuilding and logistics sectors -- and its plans for dominance in shipbuilding -- unreasonably burden and restrict U.S. commerce.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a trade strategy to combat forced labor, which includes policy successes during the Biden administration and "areas for potential future action" for the next administration, it announced in a Jan. 13 news release.