The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee chairman, 44 other House Republicans and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., urged the U.S. trade representative, agriculture secretary, commerce secretary and treasury secretary to get trade partners to end digital services taxes, improve import quotas and lower tariffs in these quick negotiations, all issues that they said "we cannot delay addressing."
The U.S. and China reached an agreement for Beijing to rein in export curbs on critical minerals, and for the U.S. to "provide to China what was agreed to," President Donald Trump said June 11, offering few details about the substance of the deal.
The U.S. is willing to lift export controls over certain semiconductors in exchange for China approving exports of rare earths and other critical minerals, a senior Trump administration official said June 9.
President Donald Trump got the phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping he'd been seeking, and Trump wrote on social media that "there should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products."
Joseph Barloon, who was a general counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during Donald Trump's first term, told Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that he believes in rules-based trade.
The International Trade Commission is investigating the state of the nonfat milk solids exporting industry in the U.S. and other major supplier nations, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and certain EU member states, the commission said last week. The ITC said it will analyze the “export competitiveness” of those industries and prepare a public report on export trends, a comparison of the “competitive strengths and weaknesses” of producers and exporters in those countries, and more. The investigation, requested by the U.S. trade representative, will focus on the 2020-2024 period. The ITC will hold a public hearing on the investigation on July 28 and is accepting written comments by Oct. 14. It expects to submit its report to USTR by March 23, 2026.
Cecilia Malmstrom, a former top European Commission trade official, said the EU is "painfully aware that the transatlantic relationship as we used to know it has been severely damaged."
Patrick Childress, former assistant general counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in the international trade practice, the firm announced. Childress joined the USTR general counsel office in 2020, where he advised Congress, administration officials and federal agencies on various trade matters, including "digital trade, climate, trade in automotives, foreign investment and regional matters involving Canada and Mexico," the firm said.
The Swiss president told reporters in Bern that her country would put together a letter of intent within two weeks, in the hopes of reaching an "agreement in principle" with the U.S., like the U.K. did (see 2505080033), and thereby avoid 31% reciprocal tariffs set to begin July 9.
The 10% tariff on the first 100,000 autos exported annually from the U.K. will be "all-in," according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. CBP couldn't clarify whether that would be done by removing most favored nation duties on U.K. autos and then applying a 10% tariff rate, or whether the additional tariff rate for in-quota autos would be 7.5%.