President Donald Trump, in a press conference with the president of Turkey on Nov. 13, said trade with Turkey “could be many times larger" than it is now, and that his administration has the goal of roughly quadrupling the volume of trade between the two countries, which would be $100 billion in two-way trade. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, U.S. goods exported to Turkey were valued at $10.2 billion, while goods imported totaled $10.3 billion.
The U.S. will soon start discussions with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations about a possible connection between ASEAN's customs filing platform with the U.S. platform, the State Department said in a Nov. 3 fact sheet about "Expanding the Enduring Partnership" with ASEAN. "The United States and the ASEAN Secretariat announced the opening of negotiations to link the ASEAN 'Single Window' with the U.S. Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) System, which governs all trade in goods entering the United States," State said. "Making this link will further facilitate $272 billion in two-way trade in goods between the United States and ASEAN."
NEW YORK -- The U.S. and China are intertwined, and revealing how deeply that is true is the silver lining of the trade war, according to Dr. Huiyao Wang, president for Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank. Wang said the West mischaracterizes forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and favoritism toward Chinese companies within China. He said that the American Chamber of Commerce in China is pleased about how the new IP protection law is going to be implemented, and he asked if forced technology transfer is such a burden, why don't you hear companies publicly complaining about it.
NEW YORK -- A former WTO appellate body panelist criticized the administration's trade policies as chaotic and ineffective and former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Stephen Vaughn defended them, while a top WTO official tried to see the good in both arguments. They were all speaking on the state of world trade at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist on Nov. 6.
One panelist said it will take 20 years to know who are the winners and losers of today's tariffs and export restrictions. Another panelist said U.S. factory workers making washing machines and solar panels are clearly winning from the safeguards launched nearly two years ago, as are Vietnam and Mexico. Another panelist said Vietnam and Thailand, and Mexico to a much lesser degree. As moderator Lucas Queiroz Piers said, “It is a confusing moment." The Alston & Bird legal consultant was coordinating a panel called "U.S. Sanctions and Trade War: Winners and Losers," at an American University Washington School of Law International Trade Symposium on Nov. 5.
The U.S. and Brazil cannot achieve a traditional free trade agreement, because Brazil is a party to Mercosur, a regional customs union -- even if the long-term participation in Mercosur is in question. But Renata Vasconcellos, senior policy director Brazil-U.S. Business Council, said her group “fully supports" what she called a "non-traditional trade agreement." Vasconcellos was one of many panelists speaking at American University Nov. 5 at an International Trade Symposium focused on Brazilian issues. "I’m concerned about the closing of this window. Let’s take what we can get now," she said.
Indonesia and South Korea “successfully” concluded recent negotiations on a trade deal and expect to sign the agreement in early 2020, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said in a Nov. 4 report. The deal will allow Indonesia to export more fish and agricultural goods to South Korea while also opening its market to more South Korean industrial goods, the report said. The agreement is expected to eliminate import taxes on more than 95 percent of Indonesian exports to South Korea and 93 percent of South Korean exports to Indonesia, the HKTDC said, an increase from 90.2 percent and 80.1 percent duty free over the existing South Korea-Association of Southeast Asian Nations trade agreement, respectively. The tariff cuts will apply to steel products and auto parts but not to a “number of agricultural items currently traded between the two countries.”
As the U.S. and China look to soon sign phase one of their trade agreement, the two sides are planning another trade call for Nov. 1, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Oct. 31, according to an unofficial translation. The scheduled call comes days after Chile announced it was canceling APEC, the trade summit where President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to sign the deal’s first phase (see 1910300037).
Parties to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will meet in early November to plan final discussions for the deal’s ratification, Japan said in an Oct. 31 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The parties “agreed to make every effort to find an acceptable landing point for all countries on the remaining issues,” the press release said. Japan also said it plans to sign a “business partnership” with Thailand that will include a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between Japanese and Thai companies.
Chile will no longer host APEC meeting, raising questions about the status of phase one of the U.S.-China trade agreement, which was expected to be signed during the November summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The country will not be hosting the trade summit due to recent violent protests and social unrest, Chile's President Sebastian Pinera announced Oct. 30, according to Reuters. The summit was expected to feature a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping after Trump said the two sides were “ahead of schedule” on the agreement’s first phase (see 1910280026). China said the deal’s first phase was “basically completed.”