The U.S. says the World Trade Organization is hobbled and Roberto Azevedo, the director general of the WTO, said the conversations around reform are gaining momentum. "I think we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to renew the trading system," he said at a speech April 11 at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Inaction would compromise the relevance or even the existence of the system as we know it." Among the U.S. complaints about the international body are that the WTO's rules are inadequate for dealing with China's myriad subsidies and that countries can self-designate as developing countries, thereby avoiding concessions in negotiations.
Mongolian cashmere would enter duty-free if a bipartisan bill led by Reps. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., and Dina Titus, D-Nev., becomes law. The Mongolia Third-Neighbor Trade Act, introduced April 10, is also co-sponsored by three other Democrats and three other Republicans. "The Mongolia Third-Neighbor Trade Act is not just about imports of cashmere; it is smart policy that supports a strong, independent Mongolia that continues to be a beacon of freedom in the region and a strategic partner of the United States," Yoho said in a release announcing the bill. Cashmere wool from most countries faces a tariff of 6.8 cents per kg, plus 5.5 percent. The sponsors of a companion bill that will be introduced in the Senate -- Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Ala., and Ben Cardin, D-Md. -- also spoke about the bill's benefits. Their bill aims to "help bring stability, employment and economic empowerment to the women of Mongolia who comprise most of the country’s garment industry,” Cardin said.
Pro-trade Democrat Gregory Meeks, who represents Queens, New York, has introduced a bill with four other Democrats and fellow New Yorker Rep. Peter King (R) that would change the treatment of customs brokers when their customers go into bankruptcy. The Customs Business Fairness Act, H.R. 2261, was introduced April 10.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., as he promised in his first letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer earlier this week, is laying out specific criticisms of the NAFTA rewrite that pertain to Mexico's labor standards. The letter, sent April 11, was signed by every Democrat on the committee, from pro-trade leaders to the most NAFTA-skeptical. "[T]here are particular concerns regarding the enforceability of the violence and intimidation provision in the new Agreement," they wrote.
Toyota does support the renegotiated NAFTA, a top executive said at a trade conference in Washington, even though it will require the company to change some of its sourcing to meet the new 75 percent autos rule of origin. Doug Murtha, vice president of corporate strategy and planning for Toyota's North American division, said that the addition of $3 billion in U.S investments were, "to some extent, changes we had to make for USMCA."
Mexican tomato growers, faced with the possibility of renewed antidumping tariffs (see 1902070024), have proposed raising prices on their exports to the U.S. by as much as 34 percent, and eliminating price differentials between tomatoes grown in the winter and the summer.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC on April 10 that lengthy phone calls between U.S. and Chinese negotiators are continuing to advance a trade deal. "We’ve pretty much agreed on an enforcement mechanism. We’ve agreed that both sides will establish enforcement offices that will deal with the ongoing matters," he said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters that if President Donald Trump were to hike tariffs in violation of what was negotiated in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, as he threatened to do, it could blow up the treaty. "More tariffs would create more problems," Grassley said April 10, and he noted the steel and aluminum tariffs are already a major obstacle. "The Congress of the United States won’t bring up that agreement until the tariffs are off," he said.
The sole U.S. producer of titanium sponge, TIMET, argued to the Commerce Department that two Japanese companies and TIMET should be given a price advantage and that all other countries' producers should be restricted through quotas or tariffs that are not subject to drawback. TIMET, which failed to win an antidumping case because the International Trade Commission said its production was not in direct competition with imports used by other U.S. processors, is asking for a preference pricing scheme, similar to those used in suspension agreements for antidumping cases.
The Border Trade Alliance is lobbying lawmakers this week for U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement ratification. “While we certainly wish the disruptions at the border weren’t occurring, they have shined a bright light on the importance of cross-border trade to the health of the U.S. economy,” BTA board chair Paola Avila said. The Alliance says the USMCA makes "major and important" upgrades to NAFTA, including in the areas of e-commerce, intellectual property protection and enhanced agricultural access.