A week before U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heads to Geneva for the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference, she said she's excited for what the meeting could bring, though she avoided predicting that either an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines would be approved, or that the 20-year fisheries negotiations would be closed.
The U.S. has brought another rapid response request, this time over an alleged violation of worker rights at the Teksid Hierro de Mexico plant in Frontera, Mexico. According to the parent company's website, the plant makes iron castings used in heavy trucks made by Volvo, Cummins, Mack Trucks and others. The owner of the company is Stellantis, the conglomerate that owns the Chrysler brand.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Koji Tomita signed an agreement that will change the beef safeguard trigger under the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement, USTR announced June 2, but the date the changes will come into force is still not known. "[B]oth countries will follow their respective domestic procedures in order for the updated agreement to enter into force," a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service release said.
The Federal Railroad Administration is going to spend $368 million across 46 projects, some of which are aimed at strengthening supply chains, it said. "Americans deserve a world-class rail system that allows people and goods to get where they need to go more quickly and affordably, while reducing traffic and pollution on our roads," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. "We're proud to award these grants to improve passenger rail for riders and strengthen the freight rail that makes our supply chains and our economy work."
Mexico announced that it will examine whether the Panasonic Automotive Systems plant in Reynosa violated the rights of its workers (see 2205180061) under the provisions of the USMCA.
The U.S. announced it is starting negotiations with Taiwan on trade facilitation, sanitary and photosanitary regulations for agricultural imports, digital trade, and coordinating to confront non-market practices. The U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade is similar to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in its scope, but Taiwan was not invited to join IPEF negotiations.
Former Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who also is a former ambassador to China, said that while the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework is weak compared with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, "but it’s a beginning and we have to work with it." Baucus said he continues to believe the U.S. should have joined the TPP, which has been rebranded as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP, but said that when he flew back from China to lobby on its behalf, "It was pretty clear this is toxic -- this was going nowhere."
An aggressive timeline that aims to file a conference report by June 21 for the House and Senate China packages has lobbyists speculating that none of the proposals in the trade titles will be in the final bill because the two chambers are too far apart. The two chambers have relatively similar renewals of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and a big difference in their renewals of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. Each chamber has proposals the other doesn't, such as directing the administration to reopen Section 301 exclusions (Senate only); changing antidumping and countervailing duty laws (House only); removing China's eligibility for de minimis benefits (House only); and renewing and expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance (House only).
Almost 40 agricultural trade groups, along with two port and perishable logistics trade groups, asked the U.S. trade representative to reduce, lift or suspend tariffs so that China would lift its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. crops. “Tariff relief could not come at a more important time,” the trade groups said in a letter. “Rural America and small businesses are facing significant challenges due to the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, logistical and supply chain disruptions, record levels of inflation, and the increasing impacts of Russia’s war on Ukraine. "
The U.S. asked for formal dispute consultations with Canada, as it believes that the federal notice that Canada issued about changes in how it administers dairy tariff rate quotas do not comply with the dispute panel's criticisms.