CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner for Trade Brenda Smith told reporters June 30 that CBP staffers “are very well-prepared to implement the agreement” that takes over from NAFTA at midnight.
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.
Although lawmakers thought eliminating the NAFTA certificate would be helpful, some importers are more comfortable with structure, so there will be a certificate template available on CBP's trade agreements web page “as soon as possible,” Adam Sulewski, USMCA Center project leader at CBP, said during a conference call June 29. He reminded importers, “We can accept those required nine data elements in any form.”
Canada complained at the World Trade Organization that the U.S. has neither proposed a period of time to comply with the ruling on supercalendered paper, nor said whether it will comply with the Dispute Settlement Body ruling at all (see 2002060059). So, as it did in April, Canada is asking for the right to retaliate for the damage done. The complaint was part of the regular Dispute Settlement Body meeting in Geneva on June 29.
It's unclear how a President Joe Biden would try to use policy to shape the global supply chain, but the Atlantic Council's Asia Security director said that since Biden prefers a multilateral approach, he “might be less likely” to impose tariffs or export controls. Miyeon Oh, who was speaking during an Atlantic Council webinar June 26, said he might try to get allies to coordinate an effort “to rebalance the global supply chain,” and he might seek to use American participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership as a way to do so.
The World Trade Organization arbitrator will not announce a decision on the size of retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. over Boeing subsidies until the fall, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources. The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on European food, beverages, aircraft parts and a few other products, because a WTO arbitrator said the European Union had not come into compliance with a decision that said it gave too-large subsidies to Airbus. The decision had been expected in May or June, and EU officials were hoping that if they were granted the right to retaliate, that would convince the U.S. to negotiate a civil aviation settlement that would lift the U.S. tariffs. Instead, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is talking about adding more products to its 25% tariff list (see 2006240017).
The Democratic National Committee chairman, and progressive star Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., described President Donald Trump's trade war with China as a failed attempt at getting tough on China that hurt Pennsylvania exporters and manufacturers. “China smelled Trump's desperation and played him like a fiddle,” DNC Chairman Tom Perez said on a video conference call with reporters June 24. “He lost the trade war that he started.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Aluminum Association reacted with dismay June 23 to a Bloomberg report that the U.S. could re-impose 10% tariffs on Canadian aluminum on July 1, because of an alleged surge in imports since tariffs were lifted. The U.S. trade representative told senators last week that he is in consultations with Canada on the issue.
The Distilled Spirits Council, on the two-year anniversary of retaliatory tariffs on American whiskey on June 22, said that the drop in exports to the European Union of $256 million isn't the full measure of the damage done to their business sector. The EU put 25% tariffs on whiskey and bourbon in response to the national security tariffs on European steel and aluminum. The EU has said it will increase the tax on American whiskey to 50% next June.
One of the nominees for director general of the World Trade Organization, Hamid Mamdouh, told the Washington International Trade Association that the failings of the appellate body are because the WTO has abandoned negotiations. This is the same view held by the U.S., which has brought the issue to a head by killing the appellate body. Mamdouh, a senior counsel at King & Spalding, was speaking during a WITA webinar June 23.
Everett Eissenstat, senior vice president of global public policy at General Motors, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that the stricter rules of origin in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement won't “change the whole dynamic” of siting decisions but will be taken into consideration.