U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai drew a distinction between 35% tariffs on Russian goods, which she said are designed to punish that country's war of aggression, and 25% (or 7.5%) tariffs on Chinese goods, which she said are not punishing tariffs.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of proposed rulemaking further refining prohibited practices for demurrage and detention, which is required under the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA).
Florida lawmakers who have asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to start a Section 301 investigation on unfair support for Mexican produce exports are forum shopping after "prior U.S. government investigations have found that Mexican imports have not injured that segment of the U.S. industry," wrote 24 trade groups, mostly agriculture exporters, but also the National Retail Federation and Retail Industry Leaders Association.
The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and 36 other House Republicans are calling on the administration to include Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, to expeditiously finalize provisions in the U.S.-Taiwan Trade and Investment Framework, and to negotiate a free trade agreement with Taiwan as soon as possible. The bill, introduced Sept. 28, is called the Taiwan Policy Act. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas said, "Deterrence is key to stopping the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] from provoking a conflict that would seriously harm U.S. national security.”
African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits for Kenya need to continue as any trade partnership is formed, commenters said, especially the third-country fabric rule of origin.
Made in China 2025, China's public document of its ambitions for technology dominance, came out of Chinese officials' anxiety about their tech vulnerability due to integration of U.S. and Chinese supply chains, panelists said during a Peterson Institute for International Economics webcast Sept. 23 featuring PIIE scholars and an expert on China's foreign economic policy from the University of Maryland, Margaret Pearson.
The EU's parliament is considering a proposal to ban goods made with forced labor from entering into commerce, as was reported before it was officially announced (see 2209120063). EU customs authorities will aim to stop products made with forced labor at EU borders. A FAQ about the proposal, which would have to pass both the parliament and the European Council, says the customs agents would take a "robust, risk-based enforcement approach. In a preliminary phase, they will assess forced labour risks based on many different sources of information that together should facilitate the identification of risks and help focus their efforts. These may include submissions from civil society, a database of forced labour risks focusing on specific products and geographic areas, and the due diligence that companies carry out."
Electric vehicle manufacturing and supply chain resilience in semiconductors continued as major topics in the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue, and pharmaceutical supply chain resilience is now also on the agenda, according to a joint statement after the HLED in Mexico City Sept. 12.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. believes that a way to preserve the economic benefits of chemical plants and also fight climate change is to impose a carbon border adjustment tax on certain goods.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai frequently talks about the need for a smarter globalization, which she calls Globalization 2.0, which is more resilient and more environmentally sustainable.