U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the U.S. is requesting new dispute settlement consultations with Canada over its tariff-rate quota allocations, because as it has talked with Canada over the last seven months, "U.S. concerns have only increased."
Two readouts from the administration say that Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White and Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves told a top Canadian official that they are concerned about proposed legislation that would affect digital streaming services, tax digital services and, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, discriminate against U.S. businesses.
Representatives from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Commerce Department presented draft negotiating text on trade facilitation, agriculture, services, domestic regulation, and transparency and good regulatory practices in the trade pillar, as well as text on supply chains, during negotiations for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in Brisbane, Australia, Dec. 10-15.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met with Mexican officials Dec. 16 to talk about Mexican plans to ban the import of genetically modified corn. The meeting came after the Biden administration heard from Congress that the U.S. should confront Mexico over the policy.
Two former government officials, one a leader at a think tank, the other a lawyer at Akin Gump, acknowledge that even as businesses continue to believe quitting the Trans-Pacific Partnership was a tactical error, "there is no conceivable scenario in which the United States could sign onto the [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for] TPP as it exists today. Strong opposition from both sides of the political spectrum to key elements of the deal would prevent congressional approval."
A proposal by the U.S. to the EU on how to structure trade preferences for clean, fairly traded steel and aluminum says that members of a global climate club would agree that when they exported steel or aluminum to other member countries, if their plants were at or below the importer's plant emission standards, they would enter with no tariffs, but if their plants were above the standards, they would have to pay a carbon tax.
More than half of the House Ways and Means Committee members, including all three of the Republicans vying to be its chairman in the next Congress, are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to initiate formal dispute resolution consultations with Mexico over Mexico's barriers to U.S. crops that are genetically modified or use other biotechnology.
The U.S. is looking to make progress on trade facilitation, agriculture, and regulatory practices at the upcoming Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) meeting in Brisbane on Dec. 10, senior administration officials said during a Dec. 7 call with reporters. Brisbane will be the first of several negotiation rounds conducted in-person.
A readout of a Dec. 1 meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Mexican Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro, a new appointee, said Tai "reiterated the importance" of Mexico imposing a ban on the import of goods made with forced labor. Tai also said it's urgent consultations over what the U.S. sees as discriminatory investment policies in Mexico's energy sector make "meaningful progress."
The Sierra Club and the Trade Justice Fund say that the EU and the U.S. should agree on a Climate Peace Cause, because otherwise, trade disputes could slow the progress of reducing carbon emissions. The two groups, in a white paper published Dec. 1, noted that Japan and the EU successfully challenged a Canadian program that supported renewable energy, and the U.S. and India each successfully challenged buy local rules for solar energy. "Trade scholars are already questioning the trade legality of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and ... [t]he European Union and South Korea, among other countries, have threatened a trade case against the tax credit for electric vehicles and other measures included in the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act," the paper said.