The European Union and U.S. have moved closer to each other's positions on World Trade Organization reform, panelists on a webinar agreed, but that's not to say it's going to be quick or easy to get the appellate body restarted.
Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, reintroduced a resolution that calls for revisions to the World Trade Organization while also affirming its usefulness. It is a repeat of a resolution introduced in 2020 (see 2007060004). “By identifying the problem and suggesting some potential solutions, this bipartisan resolution is a start to addressing and fixing some of the shortcomings of the WTO in order to support American workers against unfair foreign trade practices and enhance the ability of American farmers, workers, and businesses to access foreign markets,” Portman said in a news release announcing the March 9 introduction. Cardin said the U.S. must lead in maintaining rules-based systems, and reforms are needed for the WTO to succeed.
The European Union published an official notice that it is lifting tariffs for four months, starting March 11. The EU was levying retaliatory tariffs of 15% on aircraft and 25% on rum, vodka, brandy, cheeses, potatoes, nuts, fruits, juices, chocolate, ketchup and agricultural equipment from the U.S.
The acting U.S. trade representative, María Pagán, said that after two years of negotiations at the World Trade Organization, the European Union has agreed to adjust its tariff rate quotas since Great Britain and Northern Ireland are no longer in the EU. “Once implemented, this agreement will provide market access certainty for U.S. producers and exporters to the EU,” Pagán said.
Three U.S. dairy groups told the Canadian government in a March 5 letter that they welcome that nation's move to update its tariff rate quotas to “ensure that access to Canada’s dairy market is as close as possible to the market shares that would be expected in the absence of TRQ restrictions.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that now that the tariffs are suspended in the Airbus-Boeing dispute, he's interested in seeing “how do the negotiations go? I said last week that I didn’t object to taking the tariffs off if we can get a solution to this thing that’s been going on for … years.” Grassley, a Senate Finance Committee member who was speaking to reporters on a conference call March 8, said he doesn't think the Senate will vote on Katherine Tai's confirmation for U.S. trade representative this week. “But she’s surely going to be done before Easter break,” he said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted an official notice of the suspension of tariffs on British imports that were targeted as part of the Airbus-Boeing subsidies dispute. The press office did not respond to an inquiry March 8 about when the tariffs on European Union goods would be lifted, which is also part of the Airbus-Boeing dispute. The United Kingdom had already lifted its tariffs on U.S. exports to encourage negotiating a settlement; the EU will begin a similar suspension at some point, but did not give an effective date.
House Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., told an online audience that over the next four months, the U.S. government is going to set the stage for a trade program that supports environmental goals. Blumenauer, a longtime environmentalist, said he's not concerned that the European Union will dictate the terms of a carbon border adjustment mechanism, since its politicians have a head start. “We’ve had preliminary discussions, we’re going to have more,” he said during a webinar March 5 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on environment and trade.
Tariffs that the U.S. imposed on billions of dollars' worth of European imports to punish them for excessive subsidies to Airbus, and tariffs that the European Union imposed on billions of dollars' worth of U.S. exports over Boeing subsidies will be lifted for four months, the two sides said in a joint statement March 5. No date was given for the start of the temporary removal.
An Asia expert said that just as China's Made in China 2025 national strategic plan on manufacturing was a wake-up call for American policymakers, it did the same for Germany and German industries. “We are not so different from where the U.S. was the last four years,” Gudrun Wacker said during a joint webinar March 4 with the Hudson Institute and her think tank, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.