An interim final rule explaining how the Department of Labor will certify how much of a vehicle's production came from workers making at least $16 an hour has been sent to the Office and Management and Budget for review, the final step before issuance. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at OMB received the rule on June 1.
The implementing bill for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement did not allow for merchandise processing fees to be refunded in response to a post-importation preference claim, and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has introduced a bill that would fix that. The bill was introduced June 3. The replacement agreement for NAFTA will take effect on July 1, and CBP officials have said they hope this fix can be done by that time (see 2005220050).
Brazil's top diplomat in Washington said talks with U.S. officials are advancing, and Nestor Forster said they've made “concrete progress toward achieving the vision that our presidents set at Mar-a-Lago in having a meaningful trade and economic package by the end of this year.” The package will not include any changes to quotas or tariffs, as Brazil is part of Mercosur, a customs union in South America. Forster, the chargé d'affaires at Brazil’s embassy in Washington, was speaking at an Atlantic Council online event June 4.
The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee said most in Congress believe “Trump is right to hold China accountable for fundamental rights in Hong Kong,” but declined to say what should be done if that action leads to a breakdown in the phase one trade deal with China. China has already stopped some purchases of soybeans, but has not officially declared it will cease purchases of U.S.-grown commodities.
Reports that China would be slowing or stopping its purchases of soybeans because of U.S. action over Hong Kong (see 2006010044) are inaccurate, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said. Lighthizer, who was speaking to the Economic Club of New York, Washington and Chicago by video on June 4, said China made $185 million worth of U.S. soybean purchases since that story was published. He said that coverage of the trade agreement frequently focuses on the purchase promises and neglects the structural reforms that were pledged, but that both tracks have been going well in the three months since the deal went into effect. “You’ll know what the score is before too long,” he said.
The president of the American Automotive Policy Council, former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, said the release of the uniform regulations in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement was so recent that it's too early “to give a definitive view of what needs to be clarified,” or is missing. But he said one of the really important asks of the automotive industry was granted -- an acknowledgement that importers and exporters would need the rest of the year to be ready for full compliance.
Panelists talking about the future of the World Trade Organization are picturing a world in which the U.S. and China continue to argue about the issues of industrial subsidies and state-owned enterprises while other countries ally at the WTO to work on notifications, a binding dispute settlement process and how to share a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus around the globe.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said some farmers he spoke to in his home state of Iowa told him they're concerned about trade with China. Grassley told such questioners he's not worried about the trade agreement.
Even as COVID-19 delays some advances in trade facilitation -- such as being able to use a single window to export into Canada -- the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has good news for it, panelists said during a Dickinson Wright webinar May 28.
At a time that the World Trade Organization is under stress -- its appellate body disbanded, and its director general quitting before his term is up -- member countries are also resisting moving proceedings online. Nigel Cory, associate director of trade policy for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, said other groups have “shifted these critical high-level meetings online,” but the WTO canceled its June ministerial meeting. Cory said that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is negotiating online on the matter of digital taxes, so it is showing it can be done.