After the second two-hour meeting in as many days with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Mexico's economy minister said the talks are going well, and they're working on all the outstanding topics. Ildefonso Guajardo was evasive about progress on auto rules of origin, a top priority for the U.S. administration, which wants trucks and cars to be counted as North American only if more work is done in factories with middle-class wages. "We're doing our best to do it as fast as possible," he said.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
Trucking Companies Spared in Revised $16 Billion List; China Adds Categories to Its Retaliatory List
While the second round of tariffs on Chinese imports barely changed (see 1808070046), the most significant edit was removing trailers that can move from ship to freight train to tractor trailer. Shipping containers, 8609.00.00, accounted for about $381 million in imports last year, and taxing those containers would have caused inflationary effects throughout the logistics industry, because there is no source of containers other than China.
The European Union said in May that it has either ended the subsidy programs to Airbus that the World Trade Organization says are not in compliance, or taken steps to mitigate their effects on competing airplane manufacturers. The U.S. first brought a WTO challenge (see 1805150066) on the subsidies in 2004, but said in 2011 that it didn't believe the EU was complying with the ruling on its subsidies. It still holds that view, and has asked a WTO arbitrator to determine how much it can retaliate for the subsidies. The EU, in a document published Aug. 3, said consultations held June 27 to avoid arbitration failed to find a consensus. So it's requesting another panel of judges to decide if it has complied. A countersuit on the Washington state tax subsidies for Boeing is still making its way through the WTO appeals process (see 1706300035).
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Aug. 7 that the Morocco would begin allowing commercial imports of American poultry products. "I welcome Morocco’s agreement to allow imports of U.S. poultry meat and products and the economic opportunities that will be afforded to U.S. producers," Lighthizer said. The government estimated that the Moroccan demand will be about $10 million in the first year. USTR said the U.S. had global sales of poultry meat and products of $4.3 billion in 2017. The Food Safety and Inspection Service posted information on export requirements for Morocco on Aug. 7.
The United States notified other countries at the World Trade Organization that it intends to impose $350 million in retaliatory tariffs against Indonesia because that country has not complied with a WTO ruling from November 2017. The U.S. says that its agriculture exports have been reduced by that amount. The dispute began in 2013, and a panel was formed in 2015, because Indonesia's import license regime and other restrictions affect meat, fruit and vegetables, the U.S. says (see 1503190027).
The White House said that sanctions on Iranian gold and other precious metals, graphite, aluminum, steel, coal and software used in industrial processes, as well as the country's automotive sector, will go into effect Aug. 7. The announcement came Aug. 6, 90 days after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
Turkey, which exported about $1.66 billion in goods duty free through the Generalized System of Preferences last year, may be barred from the program after a review at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The value of Turkish imports that come in duty free through GSP has increased by nearly 50 percent in five years, according to USTR data.
The International Trade Commission will begin an investigation into what barriers the United Kingdom has to small and medium businesses seeking to export from the United States. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer sent a letter Aug. 3 requesting that a report be reproduced no later than July 31, 2019. The letter said barriers could include burdensome customs procedures, low de minimis thresholds for duties or value added tax, arbitrary standards and lack of transparency on regulations. Lighthizer suggested the ITC consult its report from 2014 on similar barriers in the European Union.
Arms export restrictions were published Aug. 3 for South Sudan, in a rulemaking from the Bureau of Industry and Security following State Department action in February 2018 (see 1802160036). The country was put on the arms embargo list because of the civil war in South Sudan, which is causing a humanitarian crisis, the U.S. says. Arms slated for United Nations or African Union peacekeeping missions are exempted.
In a series of tweets before a campaign rally in suburban Columbus, Ohio, and again on Aug. 5, President Donald Trump said tariffs "are working big time," and "foolish people scream" when his government imposes them. He said because of tariffs, America is winning, and China is "doing poorly against us" for the first time, and other countries' economies are hurting, too. Trump's preferred metric, the trade deficit, is still growing, through June and is up 7 percent compared to the first half of 2017. He said China is spending a fortune trying to convince "our politicians to fight me on tariffs."