Ways & Means Republicans Ask USTR to Restart EGA Negotiations
The U.S. should lead the charge to reopen the Environmental Goods Agreement in Geneva, House Ways and Means Republicans wrote April 22, on Earth Day. This follows a resolution introduced earlier in the month by four pro-trade Democrats calling for the same thing (see 2104080050).
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Signed by the committee's 18 Republicans, the letter to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said an ambitious EGA at the World Trade Organization would eliminate tariffs on U.S. clean energy exports. "This is a timely opportunity to advance a broad range of important U.S. goals. The United States is a global innovation leader, including for cutting-edge technologies that improve energy efficiency and help address environmental concerns, all while supporting an increasing number of good U.S. jobs," they said. U.S. tariffs on clean-energy products are already low, they said. "In contrast, some other countries that participated in the EGA negotiations have much higher tariffs on made-in-America clean technology products, as high as 50 percent," they wrote. "Therefore, the EGA presents an excellent opportunity to open foreign markets to green goods manufactured by U.S. workers without requiring the United States to make large concessions in return."
U.S. tariffs on solar panels are low due to a global safeguard tariff in place.