USTR Says Ongoing Dialogue More Useful Than FTAs

Tai, who was answering questions from the director general of the Institute of International and European Affairs and from webinar audience members, said that while she never says never when it comes to a trade agreement, she thinks the TTC "is quite a comprehensive approach to the most pressing issues," and that she's enthusiastic about how responsive it is to today's challenges.

With regard to a U.K. FTA, Tai said that every day she's struck by how the global economy is still adapting to the pandemic. She said "we will see" if the discussions the U.K. and the U.S. are having about how to recover economically after the pandemic in a more equitable way leads anywhere.

Of course, FTAs are the main way that the U.S. lowers tariffs for its importers and exporters, and Tai did allude to the importance of that in discussing the resolution of the Airbus-Boeing dispute and the shift from unilateral tariffs on European steel and aluminum to an agreed-to tariff rate quota arrangement for those imports.

"By resolving all of these trade disputes -- in our first year no less -- the Biden-Harris administration is showing what we can accomplish when we work with our allies in a collaborative and creative manner. Taken together, these agreements with our transatlantic trading partners have reopened markets and removed or averted the imposition of over $20 billion in tariffs," Tai said in her speech.

IIEA Director General Michael Collins, who led the Q&A, asked Tai if the U.K. has not gotten a deal to shift from tariffs to quotas because of American policymakers' concern that the U.K. may not honor the soft border between Ireland and Northern Ireland as the U.K. continues to navigate its decision to leave the European Union.

Some reports have said that the U.K. has not gotten treatment similar to what the EU does because of the issue of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Tai did not not confirm or deny that, but said that the treatment of Northern Ireland and Ireland "is a matter of considerable interest" in Washington. "President Biden, the U.S. Congress and I care very deeply about supporting and preserving the Good Friday agreement," she said. The Good Friday agreement led to peace in Northern Ireland, where low-level civil strife between Catholics and Protestants lasted for 30 years.

She said that changes to Section 232 tariffs are grounded in the big picture, which is how to counter economic pressure on the domestic steel industry from global overcapacity. "We will continue to be looking for opportunities to align ourselves with our closest partners," she said.

She said it took from mid-June until the end of October to reach the steel agreement with the EU, and the U.S. only formally started its consultations on Section 232 tariffs with Japan less than a month ago. "We just need to have a process that makes sense," she said. "Certainly the U.K. is very much on our minds. I am confident we will take this up when the time is right."

Although the program was primarily on trade relations between the U.S. and Europe, Tai was asked if the U.S. would join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which it decided not to join at the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency. Tai said her answer was similar to the one about an FTA with the EU. She said that Washington's concept of an Indo-Pacific economic framework is that it would be responsive to current economic needs, more than the TPP, which was negotiated from 2010 to 2015. Tai said much has changed since then. She said the framework will focus on the sustainability, resilience, inclusiveness and competitiveness of the economies of the countries involved in it.