U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced Dec. 6 that the government of Morocco will allow U.S. beef imports. Morocco opened its market to U.S. poultry in August. USTR estimated Morocco could buy $80 million a year in beef from the U.S. Details on the beef export requirements are on the FDA website.
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.
The National Council of Textile Organizations announced Dec. 6 that it endorses the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and will lobby for it. The organization said the U.S. exported $11.8 billion in textiles within the NAFTA region in 2017. The trade group views USMCA as an improvement on NAFTA because the rewrite has stronger rules of origin for sewing thread, pocketing, narrow elastics and some coated fabrics; it has stronger customs enforcement rules; and it closes what NCTO calls the Kissell Amendment loophole. The Kissell Amendment, which covers Department of Homeland Security uniform and body armor purchases, allows sourcing from NAFTA partners, not just American producers. According to a 2017 GAO report, 58 percent of DHS spending on uniform body armor procurement is for imported items. If USMCA becomes law, apparel purchased for the agency will have to be sewn in the U.S., an NCTO spokesman said. He said the change affects "more than $30 million worth of contracts on an annual basis."
The United Automobile Workers union would like to see vehicles left out of trade negotiations entirely when Japan and the U.S. sit down to craft a free-trade deal. Josh Nassar, UAW legislative director, told the International Trade Commission that Japan has no tariffs on imported cars, yet its imports are just 7 percent of sales. From all countries, Japan imported 11.1 billion in vehicles in 2017, according to World's Top Exports. In 2017, the Commerce Department said the U.S. imported $51 billion in Japanese-built vehicles. The ITC also heard from the milk lobby, the American Chemistry Council and the American Apparel and Footwear Association during its hearing Dec. 6.
A withdrawal of the U.S. from NAFTA by President Donald Trump could help push the new NAFTA through Congress, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Republican who will take over the Senate Finance Committee next year. Grassley, who was speaking on an agriculture radio program on Dec. 3, also praised the president's approach to trade more broadly.
President Donald Trump sounded more positive about the possibilities of ending the trade war with China after his morning tweets on Dec. 4 may have fueled a stock market sell-off. Trump, who had boasted about tariffs making America rich (see 1812040015), tweeted later that night: "Ultimately, I believe, we will be making a deal -- either now or into the future.... China does not want Tariffs!"
The World Trade Organization's dispute settlement body agreed to set up two more panels to judge whether the U.S. was justified in levying aluminum and steel tariffs on trading partners under a national security rationale. The decision, made Dec. 4, added Switzerland and India to the list of eight countries and the European Union that will have panels challenge the tariffs (see 1811210029).
President Donald Trump called tariffs "the best way to max out our economic power" but also suggested negotiations with China could be extended beyond the "90 days from the date of our wonderful and very warm dinner with President Xi in Argentina," in a series of tweets Dec. 4. "President Xi and I want this deal to happen, and it probably will. But if not remember, ...... ....I am a Tariff Man," he said. "We are right now taking in $billions in Tariffs. MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN."
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who will be majority leader in the new Congress, told reporters that President Donald Trump would be making a mistake if he gives notice to Congress that he's withdrawing the U.S. from NAFTA, a move he's said he intends to make shortly (see 1812030040). Hoyer, who voted for NAFTA back in 1993, said that the rewrite was only just signed Friday, Nov. 30, and Congress cannot act until certain timetables in the fast-track law are satisfied. For example, the International Trade Commission is working on an economic analysis of the pact, and it won't be ready until March.
Leaders in Congress's trade committees on both sides of the aisle didn't seem appreciative of President Donald Trump's latest threat to withdraw the U.S. from NAFTA before its replacement is voted on. Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Dec. 2, said: "I will be formally terminating NAFTA shortly. And so Congress will have a choice of the USMCA or pre-NAFTA, which worked very well." Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, told reporters on a conference call Dec. 3 that the president said that because "he's trying to light a fire under Congress."
The Trump administration is promising not to hike tariffs on China until the end of March 2019, so ports, retailers, the apparel industry and other business interests are breathing a sigh of relief. The administration described it as a 90-day pause in the conflict so that the two sides could have time to negotiate structural changes in China's economic approach, but it's actually 120 days, because the 90-day clock starts on Jan. 1, 2019, according to Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser. That is the day the 10 percent tariff on $200 billion in Chinese imports was scheduled to increase to 25 percent.