The European Union and Japan would like to join the negotiations with the U.S., as the World Trade Organization attempts to tackle the problem of forced joint ventures, tech transfer and other violations of intellectual property rights in China. The EU wrote that its members export 680 billion euros' worth of high tech products and services, and that protecting intellectual property rights is fundamentally important for that business. It also noted that it has 180 billion euros in investment in China. "Much of the investments are concluded under joint-venture requirements," according to the document, submitted April 5.
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.
Trump Considering Tariffs on Another $100 Billion Worth of Chinese Goods Under Section 301 Authority
President Donald Trump tasked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative with looking at adding another $100 billion in Chinese goods to the $50 billion already identified as part of the Section 301 investigation. "Rather than remedy its misconduct, China has chosen to harm our farmers and manufacturers," the White House said in a release. USTR promptly responded that tripling the size of the tariffs is appropriate, and promised to assemble a list. "Any additional tariffs proposed will be subject to a similar public comment process as the proposed tariffs" announced on April 3 and "no tariffs will go into effect until the respective process is completed," the agency said.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said he hopes to reshape NAFTA in a way that appeals to both Democrats and Republicans. Some of the most prominent critics in the House of Representatives on NAFTA said April 5 that while they appreciate some of his positions, he has a long way to go to convince them.
China disputed the legality of the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum at the World Trade Organization (see 1803260025), and now the U.S. is disputing both the characterization of those tariffs and how China has responded to them. The tariffs were for national security, and not to protect domestic industry from rising imports, asserted Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Dennis Shea, ambassador to the WTO. China's decision on April 2 to implement tariffs on pork, aluminum scrap and other U.S. exports were not justified, Shea wrote in a letter to China's WTO ambassador, since China can only use the safeguards to respond to safeguards, and the U.S. measures were not safeguards. "China has asserted no other justification for the measures, and the United States is aware of none," he wrote. "Therefore, it appears that China's actions have no basis under WTO rules."
Hours after the U.S. put out its draft list of tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods (see 1804030055), China said it may impose tariffs on $50 billion worth of U.S. imports, including certain narrow-body and corporate jets, cars, SUVs, soybeans, beef, wheat, whiskey and chemicals. Trade lawyers and lobbyists and China economic experts didn't agree on much, but most expect that a negotiated settlement will not be reached in time to stop the tariffs.
China will respond proportionately to any U.S. tariffs implemented as part of the Section 301 investigation, Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai said while speaking on an English-language Chinese television station on April 2. If the U.S. does add tariffs as a result of that investigation as expected, "we will certainly take countermeasures of the same proportion, and of the same scale, same intensity," he said. The White House said the total value of goods subject to levies will be $50 billion (see 1803220034). Cui emphasized that the latest tariffs on U.S. imports (see 1804020009) were solely in response to the tariffs on steel and aluminum.
Parties that wish to add to or remove products from the Generalized System of Preferences, change the GSP status of beneficiary countries, waive competitive need limitations, or oppose de minimis waivers must file their petitions with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative by midnight on April 16, the agency said in a notice. If an importer is interested in retaining GSP status for a product on the de minimis list -- a product for which total imports from all countries did not exceed $23.5 million in 2017 -- the importer does not need to make a request for a waiver. However, parties that wish to contest a de minimis waiver should do so at regulations.gov.
China raised tariffs on April 2 on all 128 U.S. products it identified in recent weeks after saying it would implement the safeguard tariffs in two phases (see 1803230008). Scrap aluminum and pork is now subject to a 15 percent tariff, while six other higher volume exports will be subject to 25 percent tariffs. "There are multiple commodities that will be affected by the trade war that’s starting," said Randy Goodman, executive vice president of scrap metal trading firm Greenland America.
Even though officials have trumpeted the rewrite of the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) as historic and a win, President Donald Trump said in Ohio that he may hold back on signing it until talks with North Korea are held. The March 29 speech was supposed to be about infrastructure, but Trump spent at least half the time talking about other subjects, including trade.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, speaking on Bloomberg television, implied an exemption for Europe to steel and aluminum tariffs could be linked to a broader trade deal. Ross was responding to a Bloomberg TV reporter who said the European Commission said the U.S. was looking to negotiate the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, commonly called TTIP. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who is in the Senate leadership, tweeted out the March 29 story on March 30. Ross dismissed the idea that reopening TTIP is news. Trump "terminated the Trans-Pacific deal. He did not terminate TTIP. We're open to discussions with the European Commission. That is nothing new. That's a long-standing objective." Last year, the European Commission said it would like to talk again about the TTIP if there's the political will to do so (see 1710170018). Despite the extended timelines normally associated with negotiating comprehensive trade agreements, Ross did not say whether the EU's current tariff exemption would be extended beyond May 1, when the temporary exemption is scheduled to end.