Senators called on the Surface Transportation Board to intervene with freight railroads, because manufacturers and agricultural producers are not getting reliable service. "If these problems persist into summer and fall, significant portions of the world's breadbasket could be cut off from assisting those most in need...," said a letter, led by Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and signed by 19 other senators from both parties. They said some grain producers cannot contract to get a freight car, causing flour mills to shut down. They said that shipping vessels have waited to leave because of delays of rail arrivals of grain. The May 23 letter is supported by the National Grain and Feed Association, the National Mining Association, the American Chemistry Council and the ethanol trade association Growth Energy.
A half-dozen countries that negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- including two that never ratified it -- and Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and India agreed to start negotiating agreements with the United States on trade, supply chains, digital standards, anti-corruption, and tax and investment from the U.S. for decarbonization and infrastructure.
A few days after the majority of senators said they want Taiwan to be included in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (see 2205180034), U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai issued a readout of a May 20 meeting with a top Taiwanese official that made no mention of IPEF. Tai said she met with Taiwan’s Minister-Without-Portfolio John Deng, and said that they discussed "opportunities to deepen the economic relationship, advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values, and promote innovation and inclusive economic growth for their workers and businesses." It said they also discussed how Taiwan and the U.S. both want to fight forced labor, and how important supply chain traceability is.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., is leading a nine-person bipartisan delegation to Brussels, the U.K. and Ireland to discuss strengthening trans-Atlantic trade relations as well as "underscoring the significance of the Good Friday Agreement." The Boris Johnson administration in London has proposed legislation to end border checks on goods sent from the main island to Northern Ireland. This is problematic because there are no border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which is an EU member.
The European Union head of trade in the Washington embassy said that the value of the Trade and Technology Council is less in trying to resolve differences in regulatory approaches and more in trying to prevent new barriers to trade.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman and top Republican on the committee sent a letter to the White House, arguing that Taiwan should be in the Indo Pacific Economic Framework, and asking for a briefing for both their committee and the Senate Finance Committee on whether it will be, what the U.S.'s economic engagement is with Taiwan, and whether the U.S. has economic goals that it is seeking with Taiwan. The May 18 letter, which also was signed by the Senate Finance Committee chairman and ranking member and 48 other senators, notes that there was $114 billion in two-way trade with Taiwan last year, and that Taiwan is a significant player in computers, telecommunications and electronics. "Excluding Taiwan from IPEF would significantly distort regional and global economic architecture, run counter to U.S. economic interests" and play into China's narrative about Taiwan, they said. China argues that Taiwan is not an independent country, and has punished countries that have given it diplomatic recognition.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said May 12 that potatoes from Idaho were allowed to be sold in Mexico just beyond the border zone -- market access the U.S. had been seeking for about 15 years, though potatoes were briefly allowed to all of Mexico in 2014 (see 14052305).
Former Mexican ambassadors to the U.S. and a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico expressed anxiety that Mexico is not able to capitalize on the move to nearshore or friendshore for a variety of reasons.
Canada published a notice welcoming distributors who do not have an allocation under dairy tariff rate quotas in 2022 to apply for unallocated quotas for industrial cheeses, and said that it no longer has allocation pools dedicated to processors.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the likelihood that the EU will pass a due diligence directive requiring disclosure of forced labor risk for large companies are changing the paradigm of supply chain visibility, a top Labor Department official said during a webinar on human rights in global supply chains. Thea Lee, a long-time union official and now deputy undersecretary for international affairs in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, said, "I do think that we are in a new era, and it will behoove most companies to start taking these steps to be able to have the eyes into their supply chain whether they are directly impacted right now by the EU directive or whether they are selling goods into the United States."