About 10% of critical raw materials, as measured by value, faced export restrictions in the last decade, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development -- and the use of restrictions grew five-fold in the 2017-2019 period, compared with the two-year period 10 years earlier. Export taxes are the most frequent restriction, the authors said, adding: "This may be related to the fact that, under WTO rules, quantitative restrictions on exports are generally prohibited while export taxes are not."
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
In more than four hours of questioning during a hearing March 24 before the House Ways and Means Committee, no member of Congress advocated for lessening tariffs on Chinese goods under Section 301, or for reopening exclusions applications.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., along with two other Democrats and Kansas' two Republican senators, reintroduced a bill to lift the Cuba trade embargo. The bill also would allow unrestricted shipping between U.S. and Cuban ports and allow transactions between the two countries' businesses.
The U.S. government, dissatisfied with the narrowing of a Mexican ban on genetically modified corn (see 2302150026), has asked for technical consultations under the USMCA's sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter. A formal dispute can't be initiated without first taking this step.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet with President Joe Biden March 10, and will discuss "U.S.-EU coordination to combat the climate crisis through investing in clean technology based on secure supply chains," the White House said March 2.
Myron Brilliant, who leads the international division at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, asked Ambassador Nicholas Burns where the economic relationship with China is heading -- it's a trillion dollars worth of business, Brilliant noted, even with American businesses' concerns about discriminatory regulations and the effects of state-owned enterprises.
The muted response of the agriculture secretary to Mexico's concessions on genetically modified corn was not enough, according to Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Smith sent a letter Feb. 15 to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai arguing that it is time to initiate a formal dispute over the non-tariff-barriers.
The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill didn't happen last year because Democrats pushed "social policy and environmental policy in MTB and GSP."
The U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council has done some excellent work in technology, according to EU and U.S. trade officials, but it needs to tackle the "trade" part of its mission more directly. A discussion on Making a More Meaningful TTC also included executives from two technology industry associations, who were somewhat less laudatory about its results so far.
Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Chris Coons, D-Del., reintroduced a bill that would give the president the authority to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions, and increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing economic coercion. It would also give the administration the ability to waive some export financing requirements and expedite regulations to facilitate trade with the coerced parties.