An academic and a think tank scholar agreed that, despite the upcoming visit between the EU president and the U.S. president, they don't expect the global arrangement on steel and aluminum negotiations to conclude by their Oct. 31 deadline.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai laid out her priorities for reforming the World Trade Organization, providing concrete options that the U.S. and other WTO members can take to reinvigorate the international trade forum. In a Sept. 22 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Tai said that the biggest tenets of WTO reform revolve around "improving transparency," rebuilding the body's ability to negotiate new rules for new challenges and dispute settlement reform.
China will appeal a World Trade Organization panel ruling rejecting its claim that the retaliatory tariffs placed on the U.S. in response to Section 232 duties were justified, the country's Ministry of Commerce said Sept. 19, according to an unofficial translation. Beijing will appeal "into the void" seeing as the Appellate Body currently doesn't function, barring future enforcement action against China in the dispute.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said India will officially end its tariffs on American apples and pulse crops this week as part of an agreement the two countries reached in June (see 2306230038). The tariffs were placed on certain U.S. goods in retaliation for the Trump administration’s Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. “In removing these retaliatory tariffs, our apple growers can now accept orders from India and growers could be making shipments as early as this Fall,” Cantwell said in a Sept 5 statement. “With over a billion people, this is one of the world’s largest markets and represents a significant growth opportunity for Washington growers.”
Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies expect the U.S. will get "a taste of its own medicine” when China appeals its loss over Section 232 retaliatory tariffs at the World Trade Organization, adding that China likely won't have to drop the tariffs since there is no appellate body to take that appeal.
A World Trade Organization dispute panel rejected China's claim that its retaliatory tariffs in response to Section 232 tariffs were justified because the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs were a safeguard in disguise.
A readout from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative after the latest round of talks between the trade representative and her EU counterpart on a steel and aluminum deal suggested she does not think the EU is thinking big enough. The U.S. and the EU are trying to agree on a system that would preference steel and aluminum made with a lower carbon footprint, and, at the same time, a system that would keep metals produced through non-market excess capacity out of their countries.
The Biden administration will complete its review of the Section 301 tariffs "this fall," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai wrote to senators, and while she did not commit to any course of action, she wrote: "As part of the 4-Year Review of the Section 301 tariffs, USTR is reviewing the effectiveness of the tariffs in achieving the objectives of the investigation, as well as the effect of the tariffs on consumers, workers, and the U.S. economy at large. As part of this review, we are considering the existing tariffs structure and how to make the tariffs more strategic in light of impacts on sectors of the U.S. economy as well [as] the goal of increasing domestic manufacturing."
The U.S. and India formally submitted their bids to end five disputes at the World Trade Organization, including a dispute surrounding India's retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods due to the Section 232 steel and aluminum duties. India and the U.S. told the WTO that mutually agreed to solutions were reached in India's disputes against U.S. countervailing duties on hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India, measures on the renewable energy sector and Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum products. Solutions were also reached in the U.S. objection to India's measures on solar cells and modules and export-related restrictions. The deal to drop the cases was struck during a visit from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House in June (see 2306230038).
The Commerce Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Census Bureau, including new rules that will add more entities to the Entity List and finalize new export filing requirements.