U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer met with the trade ministers of Japan and the EU in Paris May 31 and “confirmed their shared view that no country should require or pressure technology transfer from foreign companies to domestic companies” through the use of joint-venture requirements, licensing processes or “other means,” they said. The ministers discussed “the harmful effects of regulatory measures that force foreign companies seeking to license technologies to domestic entities to do so on non-market-based terms that favor domestic entities,” the officials said. They explored the need “to establish and share best practices” to thwart government practices that “unfairly facilitate the systematic investment in, and acquisition of, foreign companies and assets to obtain technologies and intellectual property and generate the transfer of technology to domestic companies,” they said.
The planned Section 301 tariffs on $50 billion in goods from China are "decades overdue," said Coalition for a Prosperous America Chairman Dan DiMicco in a news release on the White House announcement that the tariffs will go forward (see 1805290024). "We appreciate that President Trump is now making clear that the age of appeasement for China’s trade cheating is at an end," DiMicco said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 21-25 in case they were missed.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, the National Retail Federation and 50 other trade groups in various industries want the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to “immediately make public” the details of the process it will use to add more Chinese-sourced products to the proposed 25 percent tariffs list, they said in comments dated May 22. “We strongly believe there needs to be additional public input for any products that USTR is considering adding to the proposed list,” said the comments, which also were signed by the Consumer Technology Association, the Toy Association and the Home Furnishings Association.
The 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion worth of goods from China will go forward, the White House announced on May 29. "The final list of covered imports will be announced by June 15, 2018, and tariffs will be imposed on those imports shortly thereafter," said the White House. The announcement comes just over a week from when the Trump administration said on May 20 it planned to put the Section 301 tariffs on hold while China and the U.S. worked on the framework of an agreement.
The White House will resume plans to impose 25 percent tariffs on some $50 billion worth of goods from China, it announced on May 29. The announcement came slightly over a week after the Trump administration said it would put the Section 301 tariffs on hold while the U.S. and China formalize a deal between the countries (see 1805210029). A final list will be announced by June 15 and "tariffs will be imposed on those imports shortly thereafter," the White House said.
The Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum will continue to apply to such goods from China despite a hold on new tariffs on other products from China while trade talks continue (see 1805200002), Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on May 22. "As it relates to China, the steel and aluminum tariffs will remain in force," Mnuchin said during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services. "Those were not part of discussions," which were focused on the proposed Section 301 tariffs, he said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 14-18 in case they were missed.
Despite the Trump administration's pause (see 1805200002) in adding Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, it's too early to end efforts toward product exemptions, Baker & McKenzie lawyer Ted Murphy said in a blog post. "While this is a positive development, it is also subject to change," he said. "As a result, for now, we are recommending that companies continue to pursue exclusions just in case."
The Trump administration's decision to stop the implementation of Section 301 tariffs while the U.S. and China formalize a deal has left many wondering which country is coming out ahead. China economics expert Derek Scissors, an American Enterprise Institute scholar who briefly advised the Trump administration on the Section 301 investigation, thinks it's too early to say. "I didn’t think he would agree to a deal where we have nothing on the table. I’m shocked at that. I assume more is coming," he said. "Right now this is an IOU for a deal."