While the Venezuela military action doesn't affect trade substantially, a panel of experts said the fallout with regard to President Donald Trump's comments about Greenland afterward could "blow up the U.S.-EU deal."
A Danish member of the European Parliament from an eco-socialist party called the Red-Green Alliance is pushing for the parliament to halt consideration of a legislative package that would drop tariffs on American industrial goods and give U.S. agriculture more access to the EU market.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on the All-In podcast episode hosted by a Canadian-American venture capital billionaire, said India has not gotten a trade deal because the U.S. no longer wanted to offer the terms they'd agreed to when India's prime minister didn't call President Donald Trump within a three-week window.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., issued a statement Jan. 7 saying that he hopes there will be a vote on the Russia sanctions bill (see 2512190029 and 2601050050) "as early as next week."
Delegations to the World Trade Organization understand that if the WTO doesn't reform, things will get worse, rather than holding steady, according to Petter Olberg, Norway’s ambassador to the WTO and the man facilitating reform discussions.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Trump administration will recommend renewal of USMCA only if 20 issues can be resolved, and maybe more, as he told Congress this isn't an exhaustive list.
The U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization published a blunt response to reform discussions, arguing that the underpinning of the WTO -- that all countries should receive the same tariff rate, unless there is a comprehensive free-trade agreement between them -- was naive, "and that era has passed."
The lead sponsor in the House on a Russia sanctions and secondary sanctions bill said that negotiations are still ongoing between the two chambers on the final language of the bill.
The Council of the EU, which is made up of government ministers from each EU country, voted last week to eliminate customs duties on industrial products and to grant tariff rate quotas for some seafood and agricultural products. It also voted to extend duty-free treatment for U.S. lobster exports. That tariff treatment had expired in July.
Law firms are advising clients of changes to Mexican customs laws that begin Jan. 1, including that customs brokers will be liable if their clients provide false or inaccurate information.