TPM Solicitors & Consultants published an April 22 post on the recently signed India-Australia trade deal (see 2204040028), detailing the tariff benefits for each side, concessions in the pharmaceutical sector, the agreed safeguard measures and more. The deal is expected to boost trade between the two nations by $40 billion to $50 billion in the next five years, the firm said, and should be followed by a comprehensive free trade agreement in the next 12 to 18 months.
Australia and India on April 2 signed an interim trade deal that will slash tariffs on a range of Australian goods, the country’s trade ministry said. The agreement will eliminate tariffs on more than 85% of Australian exports to India, covering agricultural goods, food products, energy products, medical items and more. The deal will also lift Australian tariffs on about 96% of Indian goods. Both countries plan to continue working toward a full trade agreement.
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., the top Republican on the House Agriculture subcommittee that covers trade, told Farmers For Free Trade that ag exporters "want China to live up to their commitments, but we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket."
Australia and the United Arab Emirates plan to negotiate a free trade agreement, Australia’s trade ministry said March 17. The deal would be the first bilateral trade agreement between Australia and a Middle Eastern country, Australia said, and would create new “opportunities” for Australian exporters. The country also hopes the deal will represent an “important building block” toward a free trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, whose members are the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. Australia and the UAE plan to begin negotiations “in the near future.”
China's lack of worker rights, weak environmental standards "and anticompetitive subsidies are the hallmarks of China’s artificial comparative advantage. It is an advantage that puts others out of business and violates any notion of fair competition," the annual trade policy agenda from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said, and the administration is looking to advance fair competition "through all available avenues," including coordinating with other countries, using existing trade agreements, or new tools, it said.
Sanctions, rather than additional tariffs, are the most likely result of political pressure to not look soft on China, Bank of America analysts Ethan Harris and Aditya Bhave predicted. The two wrote in a Feb. 18 note that it's not surprising that China did not purchase the volume of U.S. exports it promised, but "what's unusual is the lack of follow-through from either side so far, other than empty rhetoric."
Meetings between Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White and Ecuador's trade minister, Julio Jose Prado, focused on the U.S. desire for Ecuador to improve its agricultural import licensing system, and Ecuador's concern that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program has lapsed. A joint statement from the two countries released Feb. 18 said they recognized Ecuador is improving efforts to battle illegal fishing, preserve forests and wildlife, fight climate change and marine debris, and end child labor. It said the U.S. discussed next steps to renew the GSP.
Australia’s Parliament officially began considering the text of the Australia-U.K. Free Trade Agreement this week and is inviting public comments on the deal, Australia said Feb. 8. The Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties will accept submissions through March 18. The deal is the first trade agreement negotiated from scratch by the U.K. since it left the European Union, and is expected to drop tariffs on a range of goods (see 2112170016).
The deputy U.S. trade representative whose portfolio covers Asia and Africa acknowledged that it may be more challenging to get buy-in from countries for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework without the carrot of lower U.S. tariffs, but she said corporate support will help negotiators get agreement.
A readout of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai's meeting with South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo said Tai noted "strong concerns" among U.S. steel producers, and said the U.S. is not ready to expand "conversations to develop a global arrangement that addresses the carbon intensity of steel and aluminum trade." She said she emphasized the challenges of global overcapacity driven by non-market practices. Tai said she updated Yeo on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, and discussed the need to cooperate in addressing global supply chain issues. They agreed to work together to promote resilient supply chains.