U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, after a meeting with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis in Jaipur, India, said she and her EU counterpart asked their negotiating teams to hold sessions on both a global arrangement on sustainable steel and aluminum and on a critical minerals agreement "with an intensified pace."
The fifth negotiating round for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will be held Sept. 10-16 in Thailand, the administration announced Aug. 10. The supply chains chapter is complete, but negotiators will be talking about trade issues, the green transition and anticorruption matters. The U.S. delegation is led by Sharon Yuan, a counselor at Commerce, and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Ellerman, whose portfolio is Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, whose department is responsible for three of the four pillars in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, told a think tank audience that she is "determined to finalize agreements with all of these countries on all three pillars I’m managing" by a summit at the end of November. The IPEF, which does not liberalize tariffs but does seek to lower non-tariff barriers in its trade pillar, also includes a tax and anti-corruption pillar, an infrastructure and decarbonization pillar, and a supply chain pillar, which was already agreed to earlier this year.
A readout from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the latest round of talks between the trade representative and her EU counterpart on a steel and aluminum deal suggested she does not think the EU is thinking big enough. The U.S. and the EU are trying to agree on a system that would preference steel and aluminum made with a lower carbon footprint, and, at the same time, a system that would keep metals produced through non-market excess capacity out of their countries.
The fourth round of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) concluded in South Korea last week, and the Commerce Department and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the countries' delegations "continued to make progress" toward the trade, clean economy and fair economy pillars, and advanced the legal review of the supply chain pillar.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that USTR Katherine Tai will travel to Brussels July 20-21, on her way back from Kenya.
The EU and Australia were unable to finalize negotiations on a planned free trade deal this week, a European Commission spokesperson said July 11, adding that “more work is required to address key outstanding issues.” Miriam Garcia Ferrer, the commission’s spokesperson for trade, said there were “several issues on which the Australian side required further internal consultations” but said both sides will “continue to work on bridging remaining gaps.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Jayme White headed to Cancun, Mexico, to meet with Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, ahead of the official USMCA Free Trade Commission meeting on July 6.
The European Council has approved a free trade agreement with New Zealand, with an expectation it will be signed "later on," the council said June 27. The FTA would "liberalise and facilitate trade and investment, as well as promote a closer economic relationship," the council said, noting bilateral trade is expected to rise 30% after the FTA is signed. The deal would eliminate all tariffs on "key EU exports to New Zealand such as pigmeat, wine and sparkling wine, chocolate, sugar confectionary and biscuits," enshrining nondiscriminatory treatment for EU and New Zealand investors, boosting access for government procurement contracts and preempting data localization requirements, the council said. The council said it will request the European Parliament "consent to the conclusion" of the agreement, which also requires New Zealand's ratification.
The U.S. and India announced a deal June 22 that will end India’s retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods while leaving in place the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs that prompted them, and also end six World Trade Organization disputes brought by both the U.S. and India.