U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said it will be very difficult to get China to change the policies that are the reasons the U.S. opened the Section 301 investigation. "I am always hoping, but not always hopeful," he said to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce audience two days before he leaves for negotiations in Beijing.

Life Sciences Trade Alert is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 23-27 in case they were missed.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said it will be very difficult to get China to change the policies that are the reasons the U.S. opened the Section 301 investigation. "I am always hoping, but not always hopeful," he said to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce audience two days before he leaves for negotiations in Beijing.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America praised sections of the recently released 2018 Special 301 report that highlighted intellectual property concerns related to pharmaceuticals, in a statement issued April 27. “The Report highlights serious threats America’s biopharmaceutical innovators face in countries around the world, including with trading partners like Canada, Japan, Colombia and others,” it said. PhRMA had encouraged the U.S. trade representative to list South Korea, Canada and Malaysia as priority foreign countries. South Korea recently agreed to end discriminatory pricing and reimbursement policies, while USTR added Canada as a priority country and said it would conduct a review of Malaysia’s intellectual property system (see 1804270044), the trade group said. “The U.S. government should continue using all available tools, including ongoing NAFTA negotiations, to level the playing field for American innovators,” PhRMA said.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said retaliation from China is inevitable if tariffs are imposed because of intellectual property violations, but he said that's not a reason not to act. "If you never take any action because you're afraid of retaliation, you end up back where you started," he said. China would also likely suffer more than the U.S. by its retaliatory tariffs, because it would cause food inflation where people have lower incomes and therefore spend more of their income on food, Ross said while speaking to an audience of business journalists on April 27.

Only one of the allies that have so far avoided tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. has agreed to reducing the volume of those exports -- and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says all will have to if they don't want to face tariffs. "If people don't have the tariffs, and they don't have the quota, that would defeat the whole purpose of the [Section] 232s," he said, which is to boost aluminum and steel production domestically. Since the temporary tariff exemptions for the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Australia end May 1, it remains to be seen if countries in talks with the U.S. will get another extension.

Raising tariffs on medical technology products from China as proposed would disproportionately hurt U.S. companies, the Advanced Medical Technology Association said in comments on the Section 301 tariffs (see 1804250035). "The medical technology products on the USTR list account for over half of all medical technology imports from China," AdvaMed said. "We ask that [Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS)] codes for medical technology products and components be removed from USTRs final list of products that would be subjected to an additional 25 percent." The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will hold a public hearing May 15 on the proposed tariffs.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative accepted the Consumer Technology Association’s request for Sage Chandler, vice president-international trade, to testify at the May 15 public hearing in opposition to the Trump administration’s proposed 25 percent tariffs on certain goods imported from China, a CTA spokeswoman said in an email. Of the 1,300 "product lines" in the USTR's list of proposed tariffs, CTA members have so far identified 190 HTS codes representing goods they import from China, and those goods were worth $25 billion last year, Chandler said in comments posted April 25.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will lead a delegation to China in a few days to discuss trade issues, including potential Section 301 tariffs that could affect the life sciences industry, President Donald Trump said during a press conference April 24. Mnuchin, joined by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, will discuss unfair intellectual property rights issues that led the U.S. to propose the 25 percent tariffs under Section 301. Tariffs will be levied "unless we make a trade deal. I think we've got a very good chance of making a deal," Trump said in an meeting earlier in the day.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will lead a delegation to China in a few days to discuss trade issues, including potential Section 301 tariffs, President Donald Trump said during a press conference April 24. Mnuchin, joined by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, will discuss unfair intellectual property rights issues that led the U.S. to propose the 25 percent tariffs under Section 301. Tariffs will be levied "unless we make a trade deal. I think we've got a very good chance of making a deal," Trump said in a meeting earlier in the day.