As the U.S. and China look to soon sign phase one of their trade agreement, the two sides are planning another trade call for Nov. 1, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Oct. 31, according to an unofficial translation. The scheduled call comes days after Chile announced it was canceling APEC, the trade summit where President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to sign the deal’s first phase (see 1910300037).
Parties to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will meet in early November to plan final discussions for the deal’s ratification, Japan said in an Oct. 31 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The parties “agreed to make every effort to find an acceptable landing point for all countries on the remaining issues,” the press release said. Japan also said it plans to sign a “business partnership” with Thailand that will include a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between Japanese and Thai companies.
Chile will no longer host APEC meeting, raising questions about the status of phase one of the U.S.-China trade agreement, which was expected to be signed during the November summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The country will not be hosting the trade summit due to recent violent protests and social unrest, Chile's President Sebastian Pinera announced Oct. 30, according to Reuters. The summit was expected to feature a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping after Trump said the two sides were “ahead of schedule” on the agreement’s first phase (see 1910280026). China said the deal’s first phase was “basically completed.”
China’s free trade agreement with Mauritius will give Mauritius duty-free access to 96 percent of Chinese tariff lines as the two sides pledged to continue reducing tariffs on other items, according to an Oct. 28 post from Dezan Shira & Associates. The agreement, announced Oct. 17 (see 1910170027), gives Mauritius duty-free access to about 8,000 Chinese products and covers more than 40 service sectors, the post said. The two countries plan to eliminate tariffs both ways on more than 90 percent of traded goods, the post said.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the changes to the auto rules of origin in the new NAFTA -- which include a wage floor for a proportion of the parts workers or assembly workers -- don't impress the United Auto Workers union.
Vice President Mike Pence, even as he called China "a strategic and economic rival," said that the U.S. wants to keep talking after the phase 1 trade deal is done, in order "to bring about long-overdue structural reforms in our economic relationship. And as I heard again from him this morning, President Trump remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached."
China disputed claims from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that China is stealing U.S. intellectual property and that it is “difficult” for companies to make a profit in China, saying the U.S. is engaging in “bullying practices.” A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry pointed to a recent survey r released by the U.S.-China Business Council, which reported that 97 percent of the council’s members ran a profitable business in China. “I wonder how Mr. Pompeo came to the conclusion?” the spokesperson said during an Oct. 22 press conference.
Britain's beef exporters will have “full access” to the Chinese market for the first time in more than 20 years as part of a deal between the two countries, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade said Oct. 18. China cleared four “beef sites for export” after “extensive inspections” by authorities, who “confirmed that British beef producers meet the necessary standards to export to their market, the UK said. More sites are under review, the UK said, and UK beef exports are expected to be shipped within months.
A top U.S. Department of Agriculture official lauded China’s recent purchases of U.S. agricultural products, saying the “phase one” agreement announced last week is a “positive.”
Mexican officials presented a letter from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal Oct. 17 that he is asking the national legislature and state legislatures to increase what they are spending on labor reform in the coming year, including an additional $18.8 million for federal labor courts, $18 million for local conciliation center, $13.5 million for local labor courts and $10 million for training, public education and verification related to the new contracts. The federal government will provide a property worth $23 million to the new labor center, he said,