Former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White will join Kelley Drye as a senior international trade adviser starting May 13 in the international trade practice group, the firm announced. White joined USTR in 2021, engaging with nations in the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East. USTR noted his departure in October, saying he led the enforcement of the USMCA, along with the global deal on sustainable steel and aluminum and negotiations on a critical minerals agreement. Prior to joining USTR, White worked in the office of then-Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and as chief adviser for international competitiveness and innovation for the Senate Finance Committee.
Former Sen. Chris Dodd, special presidential adviser for the Americas, said that the administration welcomes the Americas Act (see 2403060033), a bill that proposes setting country-by-country de minimis levels, and instructs the administration to reconsider U.S. tariffs "with the focus on the principle of reciprocity" for most favored nation rates and to open a dialogue with Mexico and Canada on allowing Costa Rica and Uruguay to join USMCA. It also would exclude Chinese and Russian shippers from de minimis eligibility, allow Ecuador and Uruguay to use Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act tariff benefits for certain goods, "with the goal of an eventual full-scale FTA with Uruguay and Ecuador," and asks the administration to make it so goods across Western hemisphere free trade agreements could cumulate among those agreements -- so Costa Rican content could be added to Colombian and Mexican content, for instance.
Automakers and their trade groups cautioned the Bureau of Industry and Security to tailor its restrictions narrowly -- and allow a phase-in -- if they want manufacturers to stop buying information technology components from China for cars with advanced features, including electric cars.
In the first third of its first public hearing on promoting supply chain resilience, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and interagency officials heard from groups disputing the premise of the project -- that liberalizing trade was harmful to U.S. workers and manufacturing -- and from those who say the worker-centered trade approach of the Biden administration is not going far enough to restore American manufacturing.
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The Aluminum Association cheered the Mexican decision to apply tariffs to 544 tariff lines in aluminum and aluminum products. The tariffs are as low as 5% or 10% on some products, but are 25% and 35% on most.
An international panel ruling on whether the U.S. had the right to punish a zinc mine in San Martín over labor violations agreed with Mexico that the violations happened before USMCA -- or T-MEC, as Mexico calls it -- came into force, and so the panel ruled it didn't have jurisdiction.
A career staffer in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative whose portfolio includes the auto industry told an audience of auto industry supply chain professionals that it's likely the U.S. will be talking with Mexico about the increased foreign direct investment from Chinese companies manufacturing auto parts or, potentially, assembling vehicles, in Mexico.
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements seeks comments by May 24 on a request by Canada to change the USMCA rules of origin for a fabric used in the production of fire hose. Canada says there is no commercial availability in the U.S., Canada or Mexico of “high-tenacity polyester yarn, single or multiple, multifilament, untwisted, untextured, and measuring more than 920 decitex, used in the production of fire hose, with or without lining, armor or accessories of other materials.” The yarn is classifiable in subheading 5402.20, and “end-use classification” for the fire hose is heading 5909.
Former top officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Trump and Biden administrations said there will be no return to a pre-Trumpian, pro-free trade philosophy, whether Joe Biden wins re-election this fall or Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025.