Two readouts from the administration say that Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White and Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves told a top Canadian official that they are concerned about proposed legislation that would affect digital streaming services, tax digital services and, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, discriminate against U.S. businesses.
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.
After two days of feedback from delegations at the World Trade Organization, as part of a regular trade review (see 2212140071), Ambassador Maria Pagan said she was glad that many are appreciating the discussions American diplomats are having with their counterparts on dispute settlement reform.
Representatives from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department presented draft negotiating text on trade facilitation, agriculture, services, domestic regulation, and transparency and good regulatory practices in the trade pillar, as well as text on supply chains, during negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Brisbane, Australia, Dec. 10-15.
The Inflation Reduction Act creates opportunities for more North American economic integration, according to a Mexican diplomat and a top General Motors official.
Ambassador Maria Pagan, who leads the U.S. delegation at the World Trade Organization, defended the U.S. during the two-day session in Geneva that began Dec. 14. All countries in the WTO must answer questions about their policies every few years.
House Ways and Means Committee ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who is retiring at the end of this Congress, and outgoing New Democrats Chair Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., introduced a resolution that asks the U.S. trade representative to re-launch negotiations at the World Trade Organization to liberalize trade in environmental goods.
U.S. exporters will not face barriers in exporting to the EU in the near-term, but as more products are added to the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism, it could become a disadvantage under the EU's plans for a carbon border adjustment tariff.
Two former government officials, one a leader at a think tank, the other a lawyer at Akin Gump, acknowledge that even as businesses continue to believe quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a tactical error, "there is no conceivable scenario in which the United States could sign onto the [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for] TPP as it exists today. Strong opposition from both sides of the political spectrum to key elements of the deal would prevent congressional approval."
A proposal by the U.S. to the EU on how to structure trade preferences for clean, fairly traded steel and aluminum says that members of a global climate club would agree that when they exported steel or aluminum to other member countries, if their plants were at or below the importer's plant emission standards, they would enter with no tariffs, but if their plants were above the standards, they would have to pay a carbon tax.
More than half of the House Ways and Means Committee members, including all three of the Republicans vying to be its chairman in the next Congress, are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to initiate formal dispute resolution consultations with Mexico over Mexico's barriers to U.S. crops that are genetically modified or use other biotechnology.