U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said advocates for free trade agreements who argue that 95% of customers are outside our borders are myopic.
World Trade Organization members agreed to the EU's and India's joint request to give the Dispute Settlement Body more time to consider adopting a panel ruling on India's tariff treatment of information and communications technology products. At the June 15 meeting of the DSB, members agreed to give the DSB until Sept. 19 to adopt the report unless the EU or India appeals the findings or the DSB decides not to adopt the panel ruling, the WTO said. The panel in April found that India's tariffs violated the nation's WTO tariff commitments under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and Article II of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (see 2304170018).
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body's June 15 meeting will focus on a joint request by the EU and India for a decision on India's tariff treatment of information and communications technology products, according to the agenda. A dispute panel released its report on this spat in April, finding that India's tariffs violated the nation's WTO tariff commitments under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and Article II of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (see 2304170018).
The World Trade Organization is steadily headed towards irrelevancy to global trade and is facing a "long, slow sunset," said Peter Harrell, former senior director for international economics and competitiveness at the White House, during remarks at the Georgetown International Trade Update on June 13.
A bill that approves the Taiwan trade initiative, but says it cannot take effect until the administration submits an economic analysis of its effects and answers questions from Congress on implementation, passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on a 42-0 vote.
Brazil recently added 628 items and removed 36 items from its list of foreign capital goods and information technology and telecommunications goods subject to duty-free treatment under its Ex‑Tarifario regime, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported June 9. The 564 added capital goods are classified in Harmonized System chapters 84, 85, 86, 87, 89 and 90. The 64 added IT and telecom goods are classified in chapters 84, 85 and 90. Duty-free treatment lasts through Dec. 31, 2025.
Just after the administration asked the International Trade Commission to examine the emissions intensity of the steel and aluminum sectors, a bipartisan bill was introduced in the Senate to tell the Energy Department to conduct a comprehensive study of the emissions from the production of aluminum, cement, iron and steel, plastic, and products made from all those materials, fertilizer, glass, lithium-ion batteries, paper and pulp, solar panels and cells, wind turbines, crude oil, refined oil products, natural gas, hydrogen, refined critical minerals and uranium.
Although the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade does not change tariffs, and therefore the administration says no legislative approval is needed, the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees that deal with trade have introduced a bill that would give it congressional approval.
Think tank scholars said the World Trade Organization isn't well suited to deal with technology sharing restrictions, but that the G-7 and coordinated bilateral actions have been effective so far.
The European Parliament and Council struck a "final" deal on the Anti-Coercion Instrument (see 2303280024), the European Commission announced this week, which will allow EU to impose countermeasures, including tariffs and other trade and investment restrictions, on third countries for economic coercion. The commission expects the instrument to take effect "in the autumn of this year."