U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a year-end video, pointed to a number of settlements during 2021 that both bolstered America's relationships with its allies and promoted the fight against climate change. She pointed to the settlement of a Section 337 case between two South Korean battery makers that allowed for a Georgia plant to open (see 2104120004); the settlement of the 17-year dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing (see 2106150021 and 2106170025); and the agreement between the European Union and the U.S. to replace Section 232 tariffs with a quota system (see 2111010039).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will publish a Federal Registernotice Dec. 27 that describes what proportion of certain tariff rate quotas will be allocated to the United Kingdom since it has left the European Union. The office published changes to the TRQs in July but has discovered some errors in that notice, in chapters four and 24. In addition, it is setting the TRQs for butter, cream and sour cream for 2022 for both the EU and the U.K. The changes, as modified by the correction notice, become effective Jan. 1, 2022.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments by Dec. 30 on its proposal to split one of the trade advisory committees into two committees -- one for critical minerals and nonferrous metals, and one for forest products and building materials.The office also intends to establish a committee of chairs of the trade advisory committees to "facilitate cross-sharing of information and provide a powerful tool to gather timely cross-cutting input across sectors." Comments may be made at docket number USTR-2021-2022 on regulations.gov.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has 11 member countries since the U.S. backed out in 2016, has attracted four applications this year, from the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China and, most recently, South Korea. The U.S., which took a leading role in negotiating the high-standard free trade agreement, is unlikely to ask to come back in the next two years, panelists on a Hudson Institute discussion agreed.
A spokesman for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the government "is concerned with Canada’s announcement that it will continue to pursue a unilateral Digital Service Tax." The spokesman said that Canada agreed at the G-20 to pause new digital services taxes until international tax laws change how countries can tax non-residential corporations that provide services. "Canada’s proposed DST would create the possibility of significant retroactive tax liabilities with immediate consequences for U.S. companies. If Canada adopts a DST, USTR would examine all options, including under our trade agreements and domestic statutes.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking written comments on which countries' practices with intellectual property are harmful to U.S. stakeholders. The comments, which can be submitted at regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2021-0021, are due Jan. 31, 2022.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai took a victory lap at the U.S Chamber of Commerce's Transatlantic Business Works Summit, pointing to the removal of the digital services taxes on American firms, the agreement on steel and aluminum and the resolution of a 17-year fight on subsidies for Airbus and Boeing.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Japan's trade minister and the European Union's trade commissioner said their staffs will be working to identify problems caused by non-market practices, to identify gaps in existing enforcement tools and to think about what work is needed to develop rules to address trade-distorting non-market practices. Japan, the EU and the U.S. will also discuss cooperating on using existing trade remedies. The three nations were supposed to have met on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization's 12th Ministerial Conference, but had to meet virtually because of its postponement (see 2111300028). Their joint statement also said that WTO reform is important.
Maria Pagan, the nominee to lead the U.S. mission at the World Trade Organization, told Senate Finance Committee members that reforming the appellate body is a top priority because "Appellate Body overreaching has shielded China’s non-market practices and hurt the interest of U.S. workers and businesses." She said that appellate body rulings "undermined our ability to protect U.S. workers and businesses from those non-market practices."
Trade was barely touched on during the virtual meeting of President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Anna Ashton, vice president of government affairs for the U.S.-China Business Council. Ashton, who was speaking on a Nov. 23 Twitter panel hosted by Neysun Mahboubi, a research scholar at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Contemporary China, said that follows a pattern in the administration. She said that "they are unabashedly reframing the relationship… as a competitive one," which makes her wonder where the commercial relationship fits in. The recent panel was reacting to the earlier video call (see 2111160004).