The World Trade Organization cannot negotiate trade liberalization, and trade distorting agricultural subsidies are getting worse, not better, said Aluisio de Lima-Campos, chairman of the ABCI Institute, the Portuguese acronym for Brazilian International Trade Scholars. He was leading a panel Nov. 5 at American University, the end of a daylong trade symposium co-sponsored by ABCI.
NEW YORK -- A former WTO appellate body panelist criticized the administration's trade policies as chaotic and ineffective and former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Stephen Vaughn defended them, while a top WTO official tried to see the good in both arguments. They were all speaking on the state of world trade at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist on Nov. 6.
NEW YORK -- Peter Navarro, widely seen as the most protectionist voice in the White House, gave a full-throated defense to what he called “Trumpian economics," as he said tariffs on steel created millions of dollars in investment in Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida and Colorado. "God bless tariffs in the fly-over states," he summed up. Navarro was speaking at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist.
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.
The Senate Finance Committee's attempt to give Congress more of a say on how Section 232 tariffs or quotas are applied is stalled again. Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, when he was speaking with reporters a week ago, said a markup of a bill along those lines could happen in November if he could find a compromise that could pass out of committee. The chairman's deadline for introducing a bill has slipped repeatedly through the year (see 1908070058 and 1906130033).
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.
Because the U.S. did not fix antidumping calculation methods after it lost a case in 2017 regarding 25 Chinese products, China will soon be authorized to levy tariffs on about $3.58 billion in U.S. goods, the World Trade Organization announced Nov. 1. China will have to formally request the right to retaliate at the next Dispute Settlement Body meeting, scheduled for Nov. 22.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative estimated it will take staff and contractors about a year to get through 45,000 exclusion requests it expects between new requests for Lists 3 and 4 and requests to extend exclusions granted in December last year. The estimate is part of a notice in the Federal Register published Nov. 1.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative lauded the passage of amendments to a South Korean law regulating fishing. The announcement, issued Nov. 1, noted that the U.S. has opened consultations under the two countries' free trade agreement about whether Korea was doing enough to deter ships from its countries from violating conservation measures for Antarctic fish (see 1909200046).
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Robert Menendez, D.-N.J., have asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer if Rudy Giuliani or Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, discussed Ukraine with him, as they try to find out why he withdrew a recommendation in August to partially restore Ukraine to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. About 150 tariff lines of Ukrainian exports were restored to GSP on Oct. 30 (see 1910280044). They also asked why it was withdrawn a second time on Oct. 17, and asked if USTR discussed the restoration with the president before the White House proclamation about Ukraine and GSP was issued Oct. 25.