The top European official on trade said while the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council has been very helpful in restricting technology exports to adversaries, "we need to deliver more on the trade side."
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.
About 10% of critical raw materials, as measured by value, faced export restrictions in the last decade, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development -- and the use of restrictions grew five-fold in the 2017-2019 period, compared with the two-year period 10 years earlier. Export taxes are the most frequent restriction, the authors said, adding: "This may be related to the fact that, under WTO rules, quantitative restrictions on exports are generally prohibited while export taxes are not."
The government subsidies to industry in China only end up supporting jobs, not cornering the market to jack up prices, nor advancing technology, a Carnegie Mellon economy professor argued at an event at George Washington University on China's economy and U.S.-China relations.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking April 5 at the American University Washington College of Law, said the traditional approach to trade, "which prioritized aggressive liberalization and tariff elimination," had "significant costs" in addition to "significant benefits."
Trade ministers from the U.S., Japan, the EU, Canada, the U.K., France, Germany and Italy said they will work for "necessary reform" at the World Trade Organization, including trying to reach an agreement to restore "a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all Members by 2024."
An international trade lawyer with Crowell's Los Angeles office said the focus of CBP on raw materials, whether cotton in apparel or polysilicon in solar panels, requires far more visibility into supply chains than importers were used to.
Manufacturas VU, the only manufacturer in Mexico to be subject to two rapid response complaints on labor rights, has agreed to a course of action to satisfy both Mexico and the U.S., and to avoid any penalties on its automotive exports.
Starting April 18, consumers buying electric cars and trucks manufactured in North America that do not have enough friend-shored critical minerals or North American battery components no longer will qualify for a $7,500 tax credit.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai reassured the members of the National Council of Textile Organizations that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has no interest in loosening rules of origin for clothing made in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Some have argued that the CAFTA-DR has not lived up to its potential because its rules are too restrictive (see 2112030045 and 2104140047).
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he sent a second round of letters to automakers and a round of letters to tier 1 suppliers about their ties to Xinjiang (see 2303280069) because he was disappointed by the tenor of the responses to his first round of letters in December.