Liberal activists who opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- and some that have been active since they opposed NAFTA -- will work to pressure lawmakers to sign a letter demanding that a 10-year exclusivity provision for biologic drugs be removed from the new NAFTA. They are organizing events around the country for April 24, with buttons that say "NAFTA 2.0: Pharma Rigged It, Will Congress Fix It?"
Industry groups and unions continued to react to the International Trade Commission's analysis of the new NAFTA the day after the report was released, with most saying the report confirmed what they already knew.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, arguing that the International Trade Commission's econometric models are better suited for tariff changes than changes in rules of origin, has produced its own report on how the auto rules of origin will affect domestic employment.
The International Trade Commission estimated that by the sixth year after the new NAFTA's ratification, the U.S. economy would have 176,000 more jobs than it would have without the new revised trade deal. That's a 0.12 percent increase compared to the status quo.
The International Trade Commission released its estimate of the economic effect of revisions to NAFTA, one of the steps necessary for a vote in Congress under Trade Promotion Authority. Because there are few tariff changes in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, economists focused on the advances in digital trade and job growth due to tighter auto rules of origin. Across the economy, the ITC estimated that ratifying USMCA would lead to an additional 176,000 jobs, a 0.12 percent increase.
After two days of talks with Japan, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the "very large trade deficit" was a topic of discussion. The two sides talked about trade in goods, "including agriculture, as well as the need to establish high standards in the area of digital trade. In addition, the United States raised its very large trade deficit with Japan -- $67.6 billion in goods in 2018," the office said. Reuters reported that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Japan's Economy Minister Toshimitsu Motegi will meet again in Washington next week.
In the second of a series of letters outlining specific criticisms of the new NAFTA (see 1904110062), House Ways and Means Democrats said they have questions on "whether the new Agreement will lead to meaningful improvements in standards of environmental protection, particularly in Mexico." Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has made environmental protection a top priority in his career in Congress.
President Donald Trump, speaking at an April 15 rally designed to celebrate the tax law's changes, continued to threaten the European Union with car taxes if it doesn't change its policies. "We're in massive trade negotiations, as you know, because our farmers haven't been treated properly for many years," he said. He then said negotiations with China are going well, but said the EU needs to recognize things are different now.
Canada will appeal the portion of the World Trade Organization panel that went against it in a softwood lumber antidumping penalty dispute, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced April 15. The decision, which she said questioned some aspects of the U.S. duties' calculation, did allow for zeroing, which had always been ruled out of bounds in previous WTO cases (see 1904100046). "We firmly believe that the U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber are unfair and unwarranted. That is why we are challenging these duties at the WTO and under NAFTA," Freeland said. "We welcome the recent WTO panel ruling that the United States did not follow the rules in calculating its anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood lumber.... Canada will be appealing the WTO panel’s separate findings on the U.S. practice of zeroing and its use of the differential pricing methodology." She noted that the WTO has ruled against zeroing more than 20 times.
A recent blog post by Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization that rallied opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, identifies changes to NAFTA that it says make it possible that Democrats will support the revision. The April 12 post says the "major rollback of investor-state dispute settlement," the wage content element of the auto rules of origin as well as the tighter rule, and the new labor chapter are all reasons that traditional free-trade foes have not lined up to defeat the pact in Congress. "That congressional Democrats, unions and others who have outright opposed past pacts seek improvements rather than the deal’s demise reveals there is a path to build broad support for it," Public Citizen said. The blog ostensibly was an analysis of how the International Trade Commission might estimate the economic impact of the NAFTA revision, but concluded that its "report is not likely to reveal much about either the pact’s probable effects or its prospect for congressional passage."