A global look at foreign trade agreements discussed how many major economies are moving toward more liberalization while the U.S. stands still on previously launched FTA negotiations. Baker McKenzie lawyers shared their insights on the opportunities and compliance concerns under FTAs in a webinar Jan. 25. Adriana Ibarra-Fernandez, a Mexico City, Mexico attorney, talked about Latin American FTAs, and noted that even though negotiations concluded after 20 years between Mercosur, which represents Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and the European Union, the trade deal has not been approved in the various capitals, three years after the negotiations ended.

The U.S. and the United Kingdom this week began talks aimed at resolving their trade dispute over steel and aluminum tariffs (see 2112210051), the two countries said in a Jan. 19 joint statement. Although they didn’t release a timeline for the negotiations, the two sides will try to seek “effective solutions” for the Trump-era Section 232 aluminum and steel tariffs and the U.K.’s subsequent retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce officials that lead the group's international policy initiatives said again that the U.S. is wasting an opportunity by letting trade negotiations stall. The vice presidents in charge of Africa, Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Asia policy spoke on a Jan. 18 webinar that was a follow-up to the State of American Business program.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council should not be seen as a prelude to reentering talks for a comprehensive trade agreement, and she threw cold water on the idea of a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom as well.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a year-end video, pointed to a number of settlements during 2021 that both bolstered America's relationships with its allies and promoted the fight against climate change. She pointed to the settlement of a Section 337 case between two South Korean battery makers that allowed for a Georgia plant to open (see 2104120004); the settlement of the 17-year dispute over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing (see 2106150021 and 2106170025); and the agreement between the European Union and the U.S. to replace Section 232 tariffs with a quota system (see 2111010039).

Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union renewed their interim free trade deal until Oct. 27, 2025, or until a final agreement is reached and takes effect, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 3. Iran and the EAEU in 2018 agreed to a three-year interim deal, which reduced customs duties on more than 800 categories of goods, including more than 500 Iranian exports and more than 350 EAEU exports, HKTDC said. Those goods account for about half of the trade under the deal, the report said, which has “grown significantly” since the interim deal took effect Oct. 27, 2019.

India and Australia are on track to soon finish negotiating a free trade deal, the India Brand Equity Foundation said Dec. 31. IBEF, a government export promotion agency, said the deal is expected to be completed by the end of this year and will cover products, services, investment, origin rules, customs facilitation and other “legal and institutional problems.”

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Deputy USTR Sarah Bianchi spoke with Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa Dec. 21 about adjusting the level of U.S. beef exports that triggers a safeguard tariff, according to a USTR readout of the video call.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which has 11 member countries since the U.S. backed out in 2016, has attracted four applications this year, from the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China and, most recently, South Korea. The U.S., which took a leading role in negotiating the high-standard free trade agreement, is unlikely to ask to come back in the next two years, panelists on a Hudson Institute discussion agreed.

Despite repeated lobbying and threats of tariffs on U.S. exports from Canada and Mexico, the Senate Finance Committee is proposing that a purchase credit for electric vehicles remain more generous for union-made, U.S.-assembled cars and trucks through 2026, and be reserved only for U.S.-made vehicles starting in 2027.