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 Senate Finance Committee chairman, joined by four Republicans and three other Democrats, asked the head of CBP to prioritize Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement and USMCA textile enforcement in the coming year, saying that American textile mills that are closing have said a key factor in weak demand for their yarns or fabric is "lack of effective customs enforcement."
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.
Suppliers are not really focusing on finding forced labor violations past a Tier 2 level, Pierfilippo Natta, KPMG's manager of Trade and Customs, said at a KPMG webinar Nov. 9. The survey that revealed that found 68% of companies surveyed only focused on supplier activity in Tier 1 and Tier 2, Natta said, while only 22% of those surveyed focused on Tier 3 and 19% on Tier 4.
A White House adviser on international economics praised the Americas Act, a bill that proposes adding more countries to USMCA, subsidizing business moves away from China to the Western Hemisphere, and lowering U.S. de minimis levels to pay for it.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White, whose portfolio covers Europe, the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East, is leaving his position, with his last day Nov. 1, the office announced.
Mexico's Economy Secretariat announced last week that it resolved issues at Mas Air, a cargo airline in Mexico City, after it received a labor complaint from the U.S. government in late August (see 2308310029).
The U.S asked Mexico to review whether there were labor violations at Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico, a Chinese-headquartered firm that does die casting and machining of aluminum parts in San Luis Potosi. According to Asiaway's website, the factory just opened in June this year, and another expansion is planned, until the factory has 1,700 workers. At that point, the company expects to have $800 million in annual sales from the site.
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.