A bipartisan group of senators asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to secure better access for pecan exporters to India as the two countries negotiate a trade deal. In a Sept. 20 letter, the senators urged Lighthizer to work to remove the “existing barriers” pecan exporters are facing, including a 36 percent Indian import tariff, compared with 10 percent tariffs on pistachios and almonds.
President Donald Trump, just before meeting with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 24, answered a reporter's question on whether a trade announcement is coming by saying: "Bob Lighthizer, who's right here, was negotiating with India and their very capable representatives. And I think very soon we'll have a trade deal. We'll have the larger deal down the road a little bit, but we will have a trade deal very soon."
President Donald Trump said he is not planning to impose additional sanctions on North Korea, saying the two sides are “getting along very well.”
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for a new nuclear deal with Iran and pointed to Donald Trump as the person who should negotiate it, in a Sept. 23 interview with NBC. "I think there's one guy who can do a better deal ... and that is the president of the United States. I hope there will be a Trump deal,” Johnson told NBC.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 16-20 in case they were missed.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said tariffs on autos are not related to national security. When asked to respond to news reports that the U.S. and Japan could not finish a deal because the U.S. was not willing to promise to spare Japanese autos from those tariffs, he said, "The president ought to give that assurance and get this show on the road."
Japan will eliminate or reduce tariffs on $7.2 billion of U.S. food and agriculture exports under a mini-deal with the country that the administration says replicates the agricultural access the U.S. would have received if it had joined the Trans Pacific Partnership. The U.S. Trade Representative announced the deal without saying when the agreement will come into effect. It does not require a vote of Congress to be ratified.
The Congressional Research Service issued an updated report on Sept. 13 on retaliatory tariffs and U.S. agriculture, detailing retaliatory tariffs imposed on the U.S. by China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union and more. The 49-page report also includes “key competitors” for China’s agricultural market, which U.S. agricultural sectors have been most affected by the tariffs, and the long- and short-term impacts of the tariffs on U.S. industries and the economy.
President Donald Trump was silent on trade frictions when he appeared before tens of thousands of Indian-Americans in Houston on Sept. 22. On stage with him, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi only hinted at a possible solution to India's expulsion from the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program (see 1909060029). According to a transcript of the event issued by the White House, Modi said that over the next two to three days, he and Trump would discuss economic issues. "I hope that from these discussions as well we will have very positive results," he said. "By the way, President Trump calls me a tough negotiator. However, he himself is quite an expert in the 'art of the deal.' And I am learning quite a lot from him."
The promise of good news for farmers in the U.S.-Japan trade deal is oversold, five Democrats told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as they complained in a letter about how the deal was negotiated without keeping Congress in the loop.