The U.S. and Brazil cannot achieve a traditional free trade agreement, because Brazil is a party to Mercosur, a regional customs union -- even if the long-term participation in Mercosur is in question. But Renata Vasconcellos, senior policy director Brazil-U.S. Business Council, said her group “fully supports" what she called a "non-traditional trade agreement." Vasconcellos was one of many panelists speaking at American University Nov. 5 at an International Trade Symposium focused on Brazilian issues. "I’m concerned about the closing of this window. Let’s take what we can get now," she said.
One panelist said it will take 20 years to know who are the winners and losers of today's tariffs and export restrictions. Another panelist said U.S. factory workers making washing machines and solar panels are clearly winning from the safeguards launched nearly two years ago, as are Vietnam and Mexico. Another panelist said Vietnam and Thailand, and Mexico to a much lesser degree. As moderator Lucas Queiroz Piers said, “It is a confusing moment." The Alston & Bird legal consultant was coordinating a panel called "U.S. Sanctions and Trade War: Winners and Losers," at an American University Washington School of Law International Trade Symposium on Nov. 5.
Indonesia and South Korea “successfully” concluded recent negotiations on a trade deal and expect to sign the agreement in early 2020, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said in a Nov. 4 report. The deal will allow Indonesia to export more fish and agricultural goods to South Korea while also opening its market to more South Korean industrial goods, the report said. The agreement is expected to eliminate import taxes on more than 95 percent of Indonesian exports to South Korea and 93 percent of South Korean exports to Indonesia, the HKTDC said, an increase from 90.2 percent and 80.1 percent duty free over the existing South Korea-Association of Southeast Asian Nations trade agreement, respectively. The tariff cuts will apply to steel products and auto parts but not to a “number of agricultural items currently traded between the two countries.”
As the U.S. and China look to soon sign phase one of their trade agreement, the two sides are planning another trade call for Nov. 1, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Oct. 31, according to an unofficial translation. The scheduled call comes days after Chile announced it was canceling APEC, the trade summit where President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to sign the deal’s first phase (see 1910300037).
Parties to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will meet in early November to plan final discussions for the deal’s ratification, Japan said in an Oct. 31 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The parties “agreed to make every effort to find an acceptable landing point for all countries on the remaining issues,” the press release said. Japan also said it plans to sign a “business partnership” with Thailand that will include a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between Japanese and Thai companies.
Chile will no longer host APEC meeting, raising questions about the status of phase one of the U.S.-China trade agreement, which was expected to be signed during the November summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The country will not be hosting the trade summit due to recent violent protests and social unrest, Chile's President Sebastian Pinera announced Oct. 30, according to Reuters. The summit was expected to feature a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping after Trump said the two sides were “ahead of schedule” on the agreement’s first phase (see 1910280026). China said the deal’s first phase was “basically completed.”
China’s free trade agreement with Mauritius will give Mauritius duty-free access to 96 percent of Chinese tariff lines as the two sides pledged to continue reducing tariffs on other items, according to an Oct. 28 post from Dezan Shira & Associates. The agreement, announced Oct. 17 (see 1910170027), gives Mauritius duty-free access to about 8,000 Chinese products and covers more than 40 service sectors, the post said. The two countries plan to eliminate tariffs both ways on more than 90 percent of traded goods, the post said.
Vice President Mike Pence, even as he called China "a strategic and economic rival," said that the U.S. wants to keep talking after the phase 1 trade deal is done, in order "to bring about long-overdue structural reforms in our economic relationship. And as I heard again from him this morning, President Trump remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached."
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the changes to the auto rules of origin in the new NAFTA -- which include a wage floor for a proportion of the parts workers or assembly workers -- don't impress the United Auto Workers union.
China disputed claims from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that China is stealing U.S. intellectual property and that it is “difficult” for companies to make a profit in China, saying the U.S. is engaging in “bullying practices.” A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry pointed to a recent survey r released by the U.S.-China Business Council, which reported that 97 percent of the council’s members ran a profitable business in China. “I wonder how Mr. Pompeo came to the conclusion?” the spokesperson said during an Oct. 22 press conference.