Mara Lee

The European Union, emphasizing follow-through from the joint statement in July (see 1807250031) that the EU and U.S. would be working together on trade, announced that imports of U.S. soybeans from July through mid-September more than doubled compared with the same period a year ago. EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan said: "I welcome the latest trade figures which show that we are delivering on the commitment made by Presidents [Jean-Claude] Juncker and [Donald] Trump to increase trade, particularly in relation to soya beans. This reflects both our longstanding trade relationship and the potential to achieve so much more by working together to build on that relationship."

China will impose new tariffs on oak wood veneer, non-electrical machines, makeup, copper and natural gas, which are all among the top-volume items in 3,571 U.S. imports that will be subject to 10 percent retaliatory tariffs at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 24. Another 1,636 tariff lines will be subject to an additional 5 percent tariff, with bleached wood pulp, cow hides, optical media and needles and catheters among the highest-volume goods. Together, the two lists accounted for about $60 billion in imports last year. China's tariffs come in response a newly released list of goods from China to face Section 301 tariffs in the U.S. starting Sept. 24 (see 1809170051).

A bill that would require advance data from all international mail by 2020 -- designed to help CBP interdict small-scale fentanyl and carfentanil shipments, particularly from China -- is headed to a conference committee after the Senate gave its approval Sept. 17. The House passed the STOP Act in June, also with strong bipartisan support (see 1806140037).

Most of the former U.S. trade representatives on a panel at the Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed that a multilateral approach with China would have been better than tariffs, that the World Trade Organization could have been used to good effect, and that the Trans-Pacific Partnership would have made a difference. But Susan Schwab, who was a USTR during the George W. Bush administration, disagreed with much of that conventional wisdom. "From 2005 onward, we were seeing bad behavior and backtracking on the part of China, and we tried to get China's attention on a whole lot of issues that the current administration is talking about ... and we weren't able to get their attention. And we weren't able to get Europe and Japan to help us even though quietly Europe and Japan were talking about this.

A finalized list of coming Section 301 tariffs on China will be announced after the stock market closes, President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Sept. 17. "It will be a lot of money coming into the coffers of the United States of America," Trump said. "A lot of money coming in, but you’ll be seeing what we’re doing right after close of business today.". The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative proposed the third tranche of tariffs on about $200 billion worth of imports from China in July (see 1807100070).

Importers will have to pay an additional 10 percent on about 5,700 8-digit tariff lines starting Sept. 24, President Donald Trump said on Sept. 17. "If China takes retaliatory action against our farmers or other industries, we will immediately pursue phase three, which is tariffs on approximately $267 billion of additional imports," said Trump in the statement.

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill became law Sept. 13 with the signature of the president, the White House announced on Sept. 13. The tariff rate reductions on nearly 1,700 items will take effect Oct. 13 -- 30 days after enactment. The reductions, which will last through the end of 2020, only affect the Most Favored Nation rate and not Section 301 tariffs. The International Trade Commission developed the list, and most of the items are intermediate goods, but some are consumer goods that are not produced in the U.S.

As the director of the Wilson Center's Canada Institute ran through the areas of conflict between the U.S. and Canada in NAFTA talks -- procurement, cultural exemptions, extended patents for biologics -- she made predictions in some arenas and shrugged on others. When it comes to whether Canada will raise its de minimis from $25 Canadian to $100 U.S., as Mexico has done, Laura Dawson merely said, "These are the kinds of concessions you get at the 11th hour. We're maybe at hour 10, hour 9."

A bipartisan group of a dozen senators have asked the secretary of commerce and the U.S. trade representative to open negotiations with Canada with an eye to renewing a softwood lumber agreement similar to the one in place between 2006 and 2015. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., led the letter, which they released publicly on Sept. 12. The old agreement protected domestic producers through quotas, but had escape valves tied to the market price. The senators noted that with antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian imports (see 1801020034), it has become more expensive to build houses or make window frames.

Politicians from Texas expressed anxiety and optimism about the future of NAFTA as they talked to a group of young Hispanics from around the country assembled for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in Washington on Sept. 11. "Most of us are hopeful we will eventually have a trilateral agreement," said Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, who was introducing the panel of those associated with interest groups and an academic. He said NAFTA is "dependent on the interwoven aspects of the economy of all three nations," so a Mexico-U.S. pact is not enough. "If we have to move forward on a bilateral basis, in all likelihood things will not go very well," he said.