Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that they do not want the World Trade Organization Appellate Body to be resurrected. The WTO no longer has binding dispute settlement, because members can appeal into the void if they do not like the results of a case in Geneva.
The HARD ROCK Act, or the Homeland Acceleration of Recovering Deposits and Renewing Onshore Critical Keystones, would require the Pentagon to report on the benefits and risks of proposed legislation to increase the availability of strategic and critical materials that are sourced primarily from China or Russia. That report also would talk about how it would be helpful to integrate the industrial base with allies "with respect to technology transfer, socioeconomic procurement requirements, and export controls."
As the Federal Maritime Commission considers reversing its rulemaking from 2018, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America is arguing that unreasonable practices should continue to be subject to enforcement only if they are "normal, customary and continuous."
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White emphasized the importance of Mexico blocking the import of goods made with forced labor, the importance of a science- and risk-based regulatory approval process for agricultural biotechnology, implementation of labor reform and the importance of hearing from stakeholders as new regulations are developed, according to a readout of his Aug. 23 meeting with Mexico's Under Secretary for Foreign Trade, Luz Maria de la Mora. The Mexican government didn't release a readout of what was discussed during the video call.
Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, announced that Canada will launch a USMCA dispute with the U.S. over the continued antidumping and countervailing duties on some Canadian softwood lumber exports.
Learn from the lessons of the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership, warned trade skeptics Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, in a letter they and other signatories released publicly Aug. 2. They said binding commitments in either the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or reached with Latin American partners, are not legal without congressional say-so. "The administration’s many public declarations about the proposed IPEF process seem to indicate that it plans to negotiate a binding agreement while circumventing congressional input, authority, and approval," they wrote.
In filings at the USMCA Secretariat, Mexico and Canada say the Uniform Regulations for USMCA are clear, and say that " roll-up applies to the calculation of [regional value content] RVC for a vehicle. It obliges Parties to take 'no account' of the non-originating materials contained in an originating good when that good is used in the subsequent production of another good."
Senior administration officials said that President Joe Biden didn't talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about whether he wants to make any changes to tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese exports over the course of a two-hour call.
Although President Joe Biden criticized President Donald Trump's China tariffs on the campaign trail, Peterson Institute for International Economics Senior Fellow Chad Bown said he always thought it was unlikely Biden would roll any of them back, because there are "huge political costs" to doing so, because opponents could label you as "weak on China."
Senate Finance Committee members praised the experience of Doug McKalip, the administration's nominee to be chief agricultural negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. McKalip, a senior adviser on international trade policy and other matters to the agriculture secretary, is a career staffer at USDA.