Fourteen Republican senators, led by Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio, wrote to the treasury secretary and secretary of state as the Cabinet officials traveled to China to meet with President Xi Jinping.
Although those on the Senate Agriculture Committee hailed the 14% surge in agricultural exports in 2022, when the value reached an all-time high of $196 billion, a half-dozen senators pressed USDA Undersecretary of Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor on Mexico's plan to block the import of genetically modified corn.
The U.S. requested a second dispute panel over Canada's dairy tariff-rate-quota measures, and under USMCA, that panel will automatically be formed. The U.S. says Canada's revisions to its TRQs after it lost a case "impose new conditions effectively prohibiting retailers, food service operators, and other types of importers from utilizing TRQ allocations. Through these measures, Canada undermines the market access it agreed to provide in the USMCA."
The U.S. will appeal a World Trade Organization dispute panel ruling that found its origin marking requirement for goods from Hong Kong violated global trade rules. Submitting its notification of appeal during the Jan. 27 meeting of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, the U.S. said it was taking the matter to the defunct Appellate Body concurrent with separate panel rulings that said the Section 232 national security tariffs also violated WTO commitments.
Countries participating in the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity issued a joint statement on their negotiating intentions Jan. 27. The statement said, in part, "we intend to promote greater economic integration in the region and seek to increase collaboration on customs, trade facilitation, logistics, and good regulatory practices; address non-tariff barriers; and promote sustainable quality investment."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and ranking member Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that USMCA's full potential has not been realized, and that USTR must pursue "robust enforcement."
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., who was the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, will take the chairmanship of the subcommittee now that Republicans are in the majority. The announcement was made Jan. 26. He issued a statement that said American consumers and producers are sitting on "the sidelines of the global economy because of the Biden administration’s failure to put forward a proactive trade agenda."
The U.S. and the EU signed a tariff-rate-quota agreement to adjust for the exit of the U.K. from the EU. The products are almost entirely agricultural, but plywood also is covered. The agreement was publicized Jan. 17.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark, in her annual "State of American Business" speech Jan. 12, said that if the Biden administration fails to strike a balance on how to respond to China's economic posture, it "could undermine our security, our economy, our competitiveness, and our future."
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal did not announce any breakthroughs after their Jan. 11 meeting, but their joint statement pointed to some trade irritants that might be resolved in the future.