A World Trade Organization dispute panel rejected China's claim that its retaliatory tariffs in response to Section 232 tariffs were justified because the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs were a safeguard in disguise.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
A former Mexican economy secretary, Ildefonso Guajardo, who oversaw the NAFTA renegotiation, said Mexico's current administration has not complied with the energy provisions in the trade agreement, and has "tried to disrupt trade in corn, using excuses of sanitary issues" and genetic modifications. He said in both cases, the trade disagreements "have become part of the full political negotiation" that includes migration and also includes fentanyl and security issues.
A bipartisan duo introduced a bill in the House that would not allow future Section 232 tariffs or quotas without congressional approval, and would give Congress the ability to end the current steel and aluminum tariffs and quotas.
Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Bárcena, on her first trip to Washington, put USMCA first in her list of priorities, saying that in the less than 14 months left in the administration she is part of, she wants "to be able to bring certainty" in the NAFTA replacement, and to engage across all three countries in various sectors. "It's very important to consolidate this very important economic framework, and to make sure even if we are leaving in 13 months that this can remain as a powerful ... mechanism of trade and investment and economic development and partnership," she said at the Atlantic Council Aug. 10.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jayme White said that during his meeting with Mexico's undersecretary of economy for foreign trade, Alejandro Encinas, he "underscored the need to address the recent surge of Mexican steel and aluminum exports to the United States in accordance with the 2019 Joint Statement by the United States and Mexico on Section 232 Duties on Steel and Aluminum, and ensuring greater transparency with regard to Mexico’s steel and aluminum imports from third countries."
A bill that would end China's eligibility for most favored nation tariffs was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and the text was published Aug. 8. The bill has no co-sponsors.
The Internet Technology and Innovation Foundation's Center for Data Innovation says The COOL Online Act, which exited the Senate Commerce Committee in late July (see 2307280069) "presents a significant risk for online retailers," and would result in uneven enforcement of country of origin labeling in stores and at retailers online.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said he intends to co-sponsor a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, and said he believes the appetite in Congress is "strong" to act before the summer of 2025. AGOA expires Sept. 30, 2025.
The National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones said it worked with CBP for more than two years on segregating goods detained under suspicion of forced labor, and it says ending storage at FTZs for these goods "is not justified based on the facts and circumstances involved." CBP announced late last week that goods detained under suspicion of forced labor may be transported to a bonded warehouse, but not to an FTZ (see 2308030062).
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative senior advisers Jamila Thompson and Beth Baltzan and special counsel Victor Ban said during a recent trip to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho that workers they heard from want the office to increase the use of enforcement tools in the USMCA.