President Donald Trump on July 26 directed the U.S. trade representative to seek changes at the World Trade Organization that would prevent rich countries from claiming benefits reserved for developing countries in WTO agreements.
In the July 25 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of July 24 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Of the 10 Congress members who traveled to Mexico last weekend to evaluate the NAFTA rewrite as part of a congressional delegation, one was already planning to vote for the deal, others were leaning yes, and some others have always opposed free trade deals. For some of those who were leaning yes, their conversations with government officials and institutions that tackle environmental problems near the border moved them closer to voting yes. For others who were already skeptical, they returned even more skeptical.
The European Commission released a progress report on the EU-U.S. trade talks, saying “concrete actions” have been taken that take the two sides’ “relationship to the next level,” the commission said in a July 25 press release. Since talks officially began one year ago on July 25, the commission said, the EU has “significantly increased” imports of U.S. “liquefied natural gas” and soya beans but also mentioned some roadblocks in negotiations. The commission said it wants to begin negotiations on “eliminating” U.S. tariffs on industrial goods, but “it was not yet possible to launch negotiations in this area due to diverging objectives on the two sides. The commission also said the EU “continues to make the case for ending U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminium,” which would lead the EU to “remove the rebalancing tariffs on U.S.exports.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will hold trade talks in Shanghai that begin July 30. The White House said that the "discussions will cover a range of issues, including intellectual property, forced technology transfer, non-tariff barriers, agriculture, services, the trade deficit, and enforcement."
The Commerce Department plans to issue decisions on Huawei-related export license applications “within the next few weeks,” Secretary Wilbur Ross said July 23 on Bloomberg Television. Ross said Commerce has received about 50 applications from 35 companies. “We’re processing them as quickly as we responsibly can,” he said.
Japanese and European Union officials in late June clarified certain provisions of the EU-Japan economic partnership agreement for a “smoother and more efficient implementation” of the agreement, according to a July 19 notice from KPMG and a July 17 notification from Japan Customs. The agreement was intended to simplify the import declaration provision of the agreement “by which preferential tariff treatment is claimed in Japan,” KPMG said. Among the changes are provisions that say importers are not required to provide an “additional explanation … concerning the originating status of the product if not available to the importer” and that the “absence of an explanation, in addition to the statement on origin, will not lead to a rejection of the claim or a denial of the preferential tariff treatment” under the agreement. KPMG said the changes “could help address some of the administrative burden and associated trade barriers” between the two countries.
CBP is requesting comments by Aug. 22 on an existing information collection for certificates of registration. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection without a change to the burden hours or information collected.
Over the year since the European Union and the U.S. agreed to pursue trade talks, the two sides "have actually made some decent progress" on regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals and medical devices, but "where we are stuck is on industrial tariffs," said Sabine Weyand, director general for trade at the European Commission.