The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published a notice May 13 in the Federal Register asking for comments on the eligibility of countries covered by the African Growth and Opportunity Act. There will be no public hearing, the agency said. Comments are due June 23.
Very few businesses testified at a live hearing May 6 on the tariff targets for the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Austria, in response to those countries' digital services taxes, but dozens of firms and trade groups submitted comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
A list of “principles” will set the “foundation for a high transparency standard” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will follow, the agency said May 7. USTR is committed “to comprehensive public engagement, including outreach to historically overlooked and underrepresented communities, as it develops and implements a trade policy that advances the interests of all Americans,” it said. “USTR will seek public input with respect to new major trade initiatives when feasible even when not required.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced May 5 that the U.S. will support an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines, but cautioned that negotiating the language in Geneva will take time, because of the need for consensus at the World Trade Organization, and because of the “complexity of the issues.” Top Democrats in Congress welcomed the announcement. Tai also said the administration will work to increase production of raw materials for vaccines, which has been the constraint so far for Indian vaccine manufacturers. Pfizer has expressed interest in manufacturing in India if it would speed approval of its vaccine; India currently does not allow imports of Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
With the administration's desire to address root causes for migration from Central American countries, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the free trade agreement that covers that region, and the Dominican Republic, has been “very much on my mind recently.”
In an annual report about intellectual property challenges around the globe, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative praised progress at the United Arab Emirates, and repeated concerns about dozens of countries' weak enforcement and policies it says are barriers to U.S. businesses. China, India, Russia, Argentina, Chile, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Venezuela spent another year on the USTR's "priority watch list" for intellectual property violations, while Algeria moved to the lower-intensity "watch list."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai published a readout of video calls she had with the leader of AstraZeneca's U.S. business and Pfizer's CEO on whether there should be a waiver of the World Trade Organization's agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The readouts did not say what either the government or companies' positions are on a TRIPS waiver, and during a background call on aid to India to combat its surge of cases and deaths, an official also sidestepped a question on the waiver. The readouts said that Tai “emphasized her commitment to working with WTO members on a global pandemic response, including the role of developing countries in any effective solution that addresses critical gaps in global production and distribution of vaccines”; and that the Pfizer CEO also wants to improve global access to the vaccine, and he discussed “how trade policy could help address the challenges of increasing vaccine production and distribution around the world.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's conversations with her counterparts from Italy and the Netherlands addressed global overcapacity in steel, according to summaries of the video calls released April 16. The administration has suggested that Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel cannot be removed until overcapacity has been addressed, even when the countries subject to those tariffs are not dumping steel or aluminum in their exports to the U.S.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heard from 16 unions, UNITE HERE and the AFL-CIO on their wish for the U.S. to drop its opposition to a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement waiver for COVID-19 vaccines (see 2102260053). In a readout of the April 13 online meeting, the agency said: “Ambassador Tai reiterated that the Biden-Harris Administration’s top priority is saving lives and ending the pandemic in the United States and around the world. The Ambassador conveyed the Administration’s commitment to increasing Covid-19 vaccine production and distribution, both at home and worldwide.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a video call April 1 with Vietnam's trade minister, Tran Tuan Anh, “highlighted the Biden Administration’s concerns about currency practices covered in the ongoing Section 301 investigation,” according to a readout of the call. In a tweet after the call, Tai said, “I ... urged Vietnam to address U.S. concerns on currency practices covered in the Section 301 investigation.” Tai said the two committed to increased collaboration, and plan to hold a meeting later this year under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement “to assess progress made in strengthening the trade relationship and in resolving outstanding bilateral issues,” which also include agricultural market access, digital trade and illegal timber trafficking.