Some supply chain agreements in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework may be announced in May, according to officials at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and the institute held a webinar May 3 and released a paper with recommendations of how to shape the supply chain pillar ahead of those announcements.

The U.S. readout of the meeting between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, mentioned Canada's proposed digital services tax. "Ambassador Tai expressed her hope that the United States and Canada could work together on this issue that could unfairly impact U.S. businesses," it said.

Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said that Canada and its partners in NAFTA 2.0 will not be caught unawares when it's time for the sunset review in 2026. She said that she and her counterparts in Mexico and the U.S. will be taking stock of how the agreement is working in July.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking from Asia, where she had just finished a round of meetings with Philippine and Japanese officials, said the U.S.-China trade war did not come up in her meetings, as these visits focused much more on the bilateral trade and economic relationship.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, whose agency is negotiating three of four pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, said: "We believe that this year we will be able to finalize the IPEF."

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and her counterpart from the EU, Valdis Dombrovskis, said their discussions on a critical minerals agreement and a deal to privilege green steel and aluminum trade were productive. It was the fourth time this year that Tai and the EU's top trade official met.

The U.K. last week said it “substantially concluded” negotiations to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, one of the last steps before other CPTPP members “complete domestic ratification procedures” to approve the U.K.’s accession to the deal (see 2210110026). The U.K. also released a document describing benefits the CPTPP will provide British traders, including the elimination of tariffs on more than 99% of U.K. goods exports.

The U.K. Parliament last week approved a trade deal with Australia (see 2202090017 and 2112170016). The deal, which will take effect “after UK processes are complete” and after the two countries agree to a “commencement date,” will remove tariffs on more than 99% of Australian goods exported to the U.K. annually, Australia said.

The United Arab Emirates and Georgia signed a new free trade deal, which will reduce tariffs and other trade barriers, Arab News, a Saudi Arabian newspaper, reported March 17. The agreement, reached after three rounds of negotiations, ​​"signals our ambition to build a truly global network of trade partners in strategically important parts of the world,” said Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE’s foreign trade minister, according to the report. He said the Georgia deal “holds considerable promise for our exporters.”

The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity needs strong commitments on labor rights, the environment and on digital trade, among other items, a coalition of organizations and unions told the Biden administration.