A lawyer representing the American Institute for International Steel recapped the arguments he made when announcing a June 2018 lawsuit over the constitutionality of Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act (see 1806270036), while a lawyer representing the American Iron and Steel Institute said that while the importers may disagree with the policy of worldwide tariffs, that doesn't make it unconstitutional.
A Trump administration official, the former U.S. trade representative during the George W. Bush administration and a prominent trade lawyer discussed the weaknesses of the World Trade Organization -- and globalization more generally -- during a session at the Georgetown Law International Trade Update March 7.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. reintroduced a bill that would establish a task force in the Commerce Department to investigate potential trade abuses, with the goal of helping small and medium-sized businesses that lack the resources to bring antidumping cases to the department. "Michigan’s cherry industry and our state’s manufacturers in particular have faced these challenges, and they often lack the legal teams needed to elevate these issues," Peters said in announcing the S.B. 564, which was introduced Feb. 26. The press release also quoted cherry farmers like Isaiah Wunsch, who said, "Farmers and other small business owners currently have few administrative options when we are faced with dumping or other unfair trade practices, because the cost and complexity associated with investigating and litigating these issues can present major financial and technical barriers to small family businesses." The same bill was introduced in February 2018, and was later joined by Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Angus King, I-Maine, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Eight of the 10 members of Arizona's congressional delegation, including both senators, have signed a letter to the Commerce Secretary arguing that the suspension of the Mexico tomato agreement is not in the national interest. "We encourage the Administration to continue to craft agricultural trade policy that seeks to strengthen the industry nationally, not one that is calibrated around regional or seasonal interests," the March 1 letter said. They encouraged Commerce to revise the tomato suspension agreement rather than terminate it without a replacement, because the latter move would create uncertainty in the supply chain and could trigger retaliation against agriculture exports.
The Congressional Research Service evaluated whether President Donald Trump can unilaterally withdraw from NAFTA, as he has threatened to do to force a vote on its replacement. Their assessment -- a 19-page report -- boils down to probably not. Mexico and Canada could not challenge such a move, the researchers said, because of the text's provisions about withdrawal. But whether U.S. law would allow it is ambiguous, they said, and any such proclamation would end up in court.
Canadian and U.S. auto workers are more favored than any other interest in the new NAFTA, but after a visit from U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to the United Auto Workers union in Dearborn, Michigan, March 5, the head of the UAW said the rewrite doesn't do enough. The new rules of origin not only require that more of the car's parts come from the region, but with the $16-an-hour wage provision, it will prevent Mexican-built cars from complying unless they have substantial Canadian or U.S. content.
Canadian farmers have gained an advantage over U.S. competitors in exporting to Japan because of the U.S. decision to leave the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters on March 6. "It's really going to hurt, " he said. So moving quickly on a U.S.-Japan trade agreement is a necessity, he said, and he thinks there is a chance one could be concluded before the end of the year. "They're willing to sit down and negotiate ... along the lines of what they had agreed with the United States as part of TPP," he said. "If that's the context, except for maybe rice, that might be a fairly easy thing to negotiate."
General Electric, a major U.S. exporter, remains supportive of "the notion of trying to open markets," said Drew Quinn, director of trade policy at GE. But, the tariffs the U.S. is using to try to bludgeon China into a more open stance are worse than the status quo, he said. Quinn, who was speaking at a March 5 Washington International Trade Association program on Asia, said that tariffs are generally pretty low on the aircraft engines, MRI machines and turbines it sells. There aren't a lot of investment barriers, either. "The biggest issue for us is the host country's industrial policies, and how they favor their national champions," he said. But even there, Quinn said, GE has found a way to work with foreign countries where it has facilities, and has been able to participate in subsidies. "We may have a different and less absolutist position than some people."
The tone of both the U.S. and Indian governments on the termination of India from Generalized System of Preferences benefits leaves the door open for at least partial re-entry, said Dan Anthony, who manages the Coalition for GSP, in a March 5 interview. The letter President Donald Trump sent to Congress said, "I will continue to assess whether the Government of India is providing equitable and reasonable access to its markets." The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said, "India was agreeable to a very meaningful mutually acceptable package ... while keeping remaining issues under discussion in the future." The Commerce Ministry said India wanted to take a "suitable trade margin approach" to medical devices, and that it was open to "the requested simplified dairy certification procedure," to deal with the fact that American cows are fed animal-derived blood meal.
India, the biggest recipient of the Generalized System of Preferences, will be terminated from the program after the mandatory 60-day waiting period, because it is not providing "equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors," the U.S. Trade Representative announced Monday evening. Turkey, which is the fifth-largest beneficiary of the program, is being terminated because its economy has developed sufficiently that it should no longer benefit from preferential market access, USTR said.