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.

The EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council likely will continue if former President Donald Trump is reelected, European Commission officials said at a briefing April 3. The sixth TTC meeting takes place April 4-5 in Leuven, Belgium. It's the last of this political cycle, given U.S. and European elections later in the year. The EC doesn't expect too much disruption of its work, which includes deliverables on 6G, platforms, standardization, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, officials said.

The annual report on foreign trade barriers, which covers intellectual property, agricultural exports and e-commerce, as well as all other goods and services, highlighted non-tariff barriers to ag exports, such as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures that are not based on science, burdensome facility registration requirements, and barriers to poultry in countries affected by highly pathogenic avian influenza that are not justified by the risk, in the U.S. view.

India earlier this month signed a trade and economic partnership deal with the European Free Trade Association, which is expected to expand market access between the two sides and simplify customs procedures. The deal will make it “easier for Indian and EFTA businesses to expand their operations in the respective markets,” said the EFTA, which includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

The Council of the EU on March 18 cleared the final hurdle to ratification of the EU-Chile bilateral trade agreement (see 2312050013), the council announced. After Chile completes its "internal ratification process" and the two sides have "communicated the completion of their respective internal procedures," the deal will take effect on "the first day of the third month following the date of notification," the council said.

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, even without its trade pillar completed, is moving toward implementation with the establishment of an IPEF Council that will meet annually. The council will consider proposals to negotiate new agreements, enhance trade or economic relations, or amend IPEF; consider other countries' interest in acceding to IPEF; and adopt its rules.

China and Honduras this month signed an early harvest free trade agreement after conducting three rounds of trade negotiations, China’s Ministry of Commerce said. “Both parties agreed to implement their respective domestic procedures and promote the early entry into force of early harvest arrangements,” the ministry said, according to an unofficial translation. “At the same time, we will accelerate the negotiation of the free trade agreement and strive to complete it as soon as possible.”

The U.K. halted talks on a free trade agreement with Canada, according to a post on the social media platform X by the British High Commissioner to Canada Susannah Goshko. A statement posted by Goshko, attributed to a U.K. spokesperson, said the British government reserves "the right to pause negotiations with any country if progress is not being made." The U.K. said it remains open to resuming talks "in the future to build a stronger trading relationship that benefits businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic."

U.S. negotiators will travel to Kenya to have talks under the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership at the end of the month. "The negotiators last met in person under the STIP in October 2023 in Washington, DC, and have continued to make progress in deepening mutual understanding and resolving differences," the Office of U.S. Trade Representative said. The discussions will cover agriculture, good regulatory practices and workers' rights, it said.

The U.S. says its "mini deal" approach is better than traditional free trade deals, because of their speed and focus on current problems, and while two trade experts didn't dismiss FTAs as a 20th-century tool, they acknowledged those advantages mean mini deals are here to stay.