U.S.Trade Representative Katherine Tai talked with Japan's Trade Minister Kajiyama Hiroshi about how they're concerned about unfair trading practices from non-market economies such as China, but did not mention that topic coming up with the South Korean trade minister. South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee and Tai talked about how the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement strengthened economic ties, and discussed World Trade Organization reform, the call summary said. The Korean press emphasized agreement on writing digital trade rules. Tai also spoke with Mexican Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier, and they talked about fully implementing USMCA and Mexico's labor reform. “Tai also stressed the critical importance of cooperation on climate and environmental issues, as well as reform at the World Trade Organization and the mutual benefits of robust bi-lateral agricultural trade,” a readout of the talk said. Clouthier tweeted her thanks for such a productive meeting.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai opened her first full week on the job with a series of video calls with major allies and trading partners -- Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union -- and diplomatic summaries of the calls from both sides mostly echoed each other, suggesting there was a good deal of agreement.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted an official notice of the suspension of tariffs on British imports that were targeted as part of the Airbus-Boeing subsidies dispute. The press office did not respond to an inquiry March 8 about when the tariffs on European Union goods would be lifted, which is also part of the Airbus-Boeing dispute. The United Kingdom had already lifted its tariffs on U.S. exports to encourage negotiating a settlement; the EU will begin a similar suspension at some point, but did not give an effective date.
The tariffs on British goods on the Airbus list will be lifted for four months to create space for settling the Airbus-Boeing dispute between the United Kingdom and U.S. The U.K. had already suspended its tariffs on American goods over Boeing subsidies on Jan. 1. That suspension will also last another four months. The tariffs on British imports were lifted immediately.
Thompson Hine trade attorney Dan Ujczo expects the only activity on trade in the first eight months of Joe Biden's presidency will be on issues either so small that they don't make a splash -- such as the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program -- or on issues that have an immediate need for action.
Bob Zoellick, a U.S. trade representative during the George W. Bush administrations, said that a successful way of completing a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom would be to connect the North American agenda to the U.K. “It gives you more weight,” he said during a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace webinar Feb. 17. “It helps you with North American integration.” He suggested that the FTA could look at carbon emissions, as well as labor, and he believes it could get bipartisan support for extending trade promotion authority, so it could get done.
President Joe Biden spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping for two hours, underscoring “his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices,” as well as human rights abuses in Xinjiang, according to a White House readout of the Feb. 10 call. In comments to reporters Feb. 11, he said it was a “good conversation.”
A United Kingdom trade law panel established to navigate post-Brexit trade law complications officially began its work Feb. 1 and will run for a four-year period with no extension opportunities. Panelists from 18 law firms will advise on all stages of international trade disputes, sorting through World Trade Organization compliance questions and providing legal advice on trade agreement implementation.
President Donald Trump didn't get China to agree to much in the way of structural changes, panelists said, but Asia Society Policy Institute Vice President Wendy Cutler said he put China front and center on the agenda, which was good. “He was really willing to take on the business community when it came to China,” she said. Cutler, who worked at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for more than 25 years, said that when she was at USTR, one of her frustrations in trying to negotiate with China was that U.S. “companies were pretty conflicted. They liked the … money they were making. They wanted us to be quote, unquote tough with China, but they didn’t want to be part of the get-tough strategy. Our hands were tied in a way.”
Ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Brazil, the European Union and Australia discussed on a Feb. 8 panel how to improve trading relationships with the U.S. and deal with the challenge China poses to the international trading system but had no insights into how to make breakthroughs on either.