Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, announced that Canada will launch a USMCA dispute with the U.S. over the continued antidumping and countervailing duties on some Canadian softwood lumber exports.

In filings at the USMCA Secretariat, Mexico and Canada say the Uniform Regulations for USMCA are clear, and say that " roll-up applies to the calculation of [regional value content] RVC for a vehicle. It obliges Parties to take 'no account' of the non-originating materials contained in an originating good when that good is used in the subsequent production of another good."

Senior administration officials said that President Joe Biden didn't talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping about whether he wants to make any changes to tariffs on $300 billion worth of Chinese exports over the course of a two-hour call.

The U.S. should enter into a free trade agreement with the government of Taiwan "by the end of next year," former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said during a July 26 Atlantic Council webinar. The former secretary, now on the board of the think tank, went on to say that not only should the U.S. pursue an agreement with Taiwan, but that America should persuade its European allies to do the same, regardless of pushback from China.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asked for consultations with Mexico over a 2021 amendment to Mexico's Electric Power Industry Law that privileges the state-owned electric utility, and over 2019 and June 2022 actions that privilege PEMEX, Mexico's state-owned oil and gas company.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that all the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) partner countries met July 13 and 14 in Singapore for the first real discussions of the issues covered by the framework. The agency said the 165 delegates had positive and constructive dialogue.

Just as the U.S. trade representative declined to continue work toward a traditional free trade agreement with the U.K. begun during the previous administration, current USTR Katherine Tai announced July 14 that trade talks with Kenya will deal with trade facilitation, digital trade, science-based sanitary and phytosanitary rules and rooting out forced labor in supply chains -- not reducing tariffs on either side.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, after meeting with Kenya's trade minister on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization's ministerial conference, said the two countries "could develop an ambitious roadmap for enhanced cooperation and, where appropriate, explore negotiating high-standard commitments. The issues discussed include trade facilitation and customs, standards, services digital trade, environment and climate change, and agriculture."

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai talked with the 13 countries that have signed up for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework during a trip to Paris for an event at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and issued a statement that said she shared her vision for the trade pillar. Tai "explained her hope that the United States and IPEF partners that choose to join the trade pillar will seek to build high-standard, inclusive, free, and fair trade commitments and develop new and creative approaches in trade and technology policy that advance a broad set of objectives related to: labor; environment; the digital economy; agriculture; transparency and good regulatory practices; competition policy; and trade facilitation."

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.