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.
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.
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."
President Donald Trump, speaking at a fracking conference in Pennsylvania, first said that Democrats don't want to put the NAFTA rewrite up for a vote, then said, "But I think they're going to put it up because everybody wants it, and I think ultimately, they're going to do the right thing."
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who served as the Republican party whip for five years until 2018, said he doesn't think the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would come up this week. The most likely way for the Hong Kong bill to move that quickly would be to see if it could be subject to unanimous consent, which means a voice vote with no debate. Bringing up a bill in this way is to "hotline" it.
China is going to ask the World Trade Organization to authorize retaliatory tariffs on $2.4 billion worth of goods at the WTO's dispute settlement body meeting Oct. 28. If the U.S. disagrees with either the argument that it's not complying with the ruling on countervailing duties, or the amount of retaliation permitted, an arbitrator will decide how much China may retaliate.
World Trade Organization Deputy Director General Alan Wolff said that while there are tricky issues in the e-commerce talks in Geneva -- privacy and the free flow of data among them -- "the process is moving forward rapidly and in a very good spirit."
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,
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Mexico has made "another significant step forward" by promising to fully fund new labor courts that will be integral to major labor reform in that country. Neal said he, fellow working group member Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and committee member Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., met with the Mexican president for an hour and 45 minutes during the recess, an hour longer than scheduled.
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that a House ratification vote for the new NAFTA can be held before Thanksgiving, according to Dan Ujczo, chairman of Dickinson Wright's cross-border law practice. Ujczo, whose firm works with auto manufacturers and who follows the politics of North American trade closely, said when his clients did fly-ins, Republicans, trade associations, and Democrats outside the Progressive Caucus all said that. But Ujczo doesn't think that's true.
President Donald Trump announced a "very substantial phase 1" deal in the Oval Office Oct. 11, saying the Chinese and American negotiators came to a deal on intellectual property, financial services and agricultural sales. The president said China will buy as much as $40 billion to $50 billion worth of American commodities. He also said good progress had been made on issues around technology transfer from American companies to Chinese partners.