Canada and Indonesia agreed to begin negotiating a trade deal June 20 to boost cooperation and “reinforce both countries’ shared commitment to open markets and rules-based trade,” Canada said June 20. A potential Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with Indonesia has large support within Canadian industry, the country said. Canada said it will release its negotiating objectives at least 30 days before the first round of negotiations.

The United Kingdom and the U.S. announced an agreement in the Airbus-Boeing dispute in line with the previously announced agreement between the U.S. and the European Union (see 2106150021). In the agreement, both sides will keep 25% tariffs off a variety of products and 10% tariffs off aircraft for at least five years, and will use a working group to hash out any disagreements on whether either government's support for their large aircraft maker is distorting sales. They also will work together to counter Chinese or other countries' distortions, the June 17 statement said.

In a Swiss readout after a meeting between Switzerland's President Guy Parmelin and President Joe Biden, the Swiss said the two delegations "discussed the status of the exploratory talks for a potential bilateral trade agreement." The U.S. readout of the same meeting did not mention trade.

The Coalition of American Metal Manufacturers and Users said the U.S. negotiators aiming to end Section 232 tariffs by addressing steel overcapacity should listen to U.S. industrial users of the metals.

The U.S.-European Union joint statement on trade says: "We will engage in discussions to allow the resolution of existing differences on measures regarding steel and aluminum before the end of the year. In this regard, we are determined to work together to resolve tensions arising from the U.S. application of tariffs on imports from the EU under U.S. Section 232." It also says, "We commit to ensure the long-term viability of our steel and aluminum industries, and to address excess capacity."

The leaders of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the U.S. and Italy agreed to work collectively toward eradicating the use of all forms of forced labor in global supply chains, and said they want concrete suggestions ready before the G-7 trade ministers' meeting in October.

A draft prepared in advance of the European Union-U.S. summit says the EU and the U.S. agree to work to find a way to roll back the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum by Dec. 1, Bloomberg reported June 8. The two sides previously said they were working on finding an effective way to counter Chinese overcapacity in metals by the end of the year, so the tariffs could be lifted. The EU has said it will immediately lift its retaliatory tariffs against American exports once the 232 tariffs are gone. The same draft also says the U.S. and the EU pledge to resolve the Airbus-Boeing dispute by July 11. That's when the temporary pause on tariffs on both sides is slated to end.

Metal-using and other trade associations, including the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, the American Apparel and Footwear Association and the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, sent a letter June 9 to President Joe Biden asking him to expedite discussions with the European Union to address global steel and aluminum overcapacity so the Section 232 tariffs can be lifted as soon as possible. The 33 trade groups wrote, "These tariffs and quotas continue to hurt small, family-owned businesses and the communities in which they built their companies, while fracturing relations with overseas trading partners and spurring a frenzy of retaliatory trade measures against both related and unrelated industries."

Israel and South Korea earlier this month signed a free trade agreement, marking the first trade deal between South Korea and a Middle Eastern country, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported May 21. The agreement will reduce tariffs and eliminate duties on certain manufactured goods and electronics, including cars, phones, machinery, chemicals and plastics. The report said that more than 95% of each country’s exports won’t be subject to tariffs, including shipments of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from Israel to South Korea.

The day before the first USMCA Free Trade Commission meeting, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, talked about how to strengthen North American supply chains, combat forced labor and climate change, and reform the World Trade Organization.