U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a video call April 1 with Vietnam's trade minister, Tran Tuan Anh, “highlighted the Biden Administration’s concerns about currency practices covered in the ongoing Section 301 investigation,” according to a readout of the call. In a tweet after the call, Tai said, “I ... urged Vietnam to address U.S. concerns on currency practices covered in the Section 301 investigation.” Tai said the two committed to increased collaboration, and plan to hold a meeting later this year under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement “to assess progress made in strengthening the trade relationship and in resolving outstanding bilateral issues,” which also include agricultural market access, digital trade and illegal timber trafficking.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Kenya's trade minister, Betty Maina, talked about the bilateral negotiations conducted during the previous administration, according to a readout of the April 1 call. “Ambassador Tai highlighted her ongoing review of the negotiations to ensure that any agreement aligns with the Biden-Harris administration’s Build Back Better agenda,” the summary said. Maina tweeted, “It was a great pleasure to meet with @AmbassadorTai the United States Trade Representative to take stock of our strategic relationship and trade. I welcome the invitation to work together on shaping mutually beneficial trade relations between Africa and the US post [African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)].”
Penny Naas, president of UPS's international public affairs, said one bright spot in logistics during the pandemic is that more countries accepted electronic documents as goods crossed borders. She gave the example of an inefficient paper-based process as a country requiring a stamp, or chop, on goods entering or exiting the country. “A lot of that was suspended during COVID-19, but we’re starting to see some of that creep back,” she said during an Atlantic Council webinar March 31 on logistics. Naas called for digitalizing the import processes for low-value shipments, as direct exports to consumers grow rapidly. “There’s a way to digitalize it; but it’s expensive, and it’s not necessarily the sexiest of issues to digitalize the border,” she said. But if countries did, it would be a tremendous opportunity to stop illicit trade and increase revenue collection, she said.
A Japanese trade official said Japan's subsidies to diversify and reshore supply chains have already spurred plans for domestic factories for semiconductors, battery components for electric vehicles, aircraft engine parts, household disinfectants, medicines, protective gowns and chemicals.
Trade ministers from the G-7 countries told World Trade Organization Director-General Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala that they will provide political momentum to the WTO reform debate, during an online meeting March 31. “The multilateral trading system can be a force for good. It has increased competition and economic growth, helped raise living standards, and lifted millions out of poverty. It must serve the needs of all its members and provide the basis for free and fair trade. G7 Trade Ministers recognised that global trade should work for democratic and open-market systems and that these should not be undermined by unfair trade,” the joint statement of the trade ministers said. The United Kingdom hosted the call. The ministers agreed that the WTO needs to strengthen transparency, change the approach to special and differential treatment for developing countries, and reform dispute settlement.
The Alliance for Trade Enforcement, an umbrella group, joined by 18 business groups representing food and candy manufacturers, tech and telecom, energy, pharma and others, is asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to pressure Mexico to reverse some policies or not to pass others that it says violate the new free trade agreement.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in her first interview since taking office, said that she's hearing from stakeholders who say the additional tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods from China damages the economy, but she's not inclined to remove them without concessions from China. “No negotiator walks away from leverage, right?” she said. “I have heard people say, ‘Please just take these tariffs off,’” Tai told The Wall Street Journal. But “yanking off tariffs,” she warned, could harm the economy unless the change is “communicated in a way so that the actors in the economy can make adjustments.”
Bill Brock, a U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration, died March 25 at age 90 of pneumonia, according to published reports.
Three Sheppard Mullin lawyers, across two continents, say the outcome of the new aggressive stance against China's rising technological manufacturing sector is yet to be seen, but that they don't expect the Biden administration to back away from the most significant export control actions taken under President Donald Trump.
Brazil's Economy Minister Lucas Ferraz said that two years ago, Brazil proposed to the other three countries in the Mercosur trade bloc that they should reduce the average tariff by half. It's currently 11.5%, and he said the Brazilian government believes it should be 6% to 7%.