European collaboration with the U.S. on trade-related policies and other issues likely will become more difficult when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January, a former Swedish government official said Nov. 7.
Former President Donald Trump is projected to win reelection and Republicans took back control of the Senate, setting up a possible repeat of the first Trump-led government that frequently used export controls to counter China and didn’t hesitate to levy threats at traditional U.S. trading partners.
U.K. negotiators flew to Seoul this week to begin talks on upgrading a trade deal with South Korea that was negotiated more than a decade ago. The U.K. specifically wants to put in place “digitalised customs procedures,” simplified rules of origin and “reduced or zero tariffs” for exports to South Korea, adding that it wants to take better advantage of South Korea’s “booming import demand.”
Maros Sefcovic of Slovakia, the EU’s candidate for trade and economic security commissioner, said this week he would “double down” on defending European industry against “increasingly widespread” unfair practices.
Australian Trade Minister Dan Farrell and Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao met to discuss trade issues this week ahead of the China International Import Expo trade show in Shanghai, the two countries said.
New Zealand last week launched mandatory negotiations with Canada under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to challenge Canada’s dairy tariff rate quotas, saying they are unfairly restricting New Zealand exporters. The country said a panel of arbitrators ruled in favor of New Zealand in September 2023, finding Canada breached its CPTPP obligations “by blocking New Zealand dairy access.” Since then, Canada “failed to comply with the ruling,” New Zealand said.
Both a potential Kamala Harris and a potential Donald Trump administration are likely to continue the U.S. government’s increasing focus on sanctions and export control enforcement, even if their approaches to specific trade measures may differ, such as tariffs against China or sanctions against Russia, said Adam Smith, a Gibson Dunn lawyer.
China opened a dispute at the World Trade Organization Oct. 11 against Turkey's 40% import duties on Chinese electric vehicles, the WTO announced. The complaint said the rate is greater than the duty rate laid out in Turkey's schedule of concessions and higher than duties on EV imports from other nations.
Former Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Bárcena said that she has been told that the U.S. will not comply with the panel ruling that said that rollup was understood to be part of the automotive rule of origin (see 2403070067), and she said that is undermining USMCA. She said that's because both the Republicans and the Democrats are fighting for the political support of the United Autoworkers and Teamsters. (The autoworkers' union characterizes rollup as watering down the requirement for North American content in vehicles).
U.S. semiconductor export controls on China lack a clear “endgame,” said Michael Mazarr, a senior political scientist with the RAND think tank. He said the controls are a “perfect example” of a U.S. policy approach that embraces “competition for its own sake and rushing down blind alleys without a clear sense of where policy will lead.”