Chile will no longer host APEC meeting, raising questions about the status of phase one of the U.S.-China trade agreement, which was expected to be signed during the November summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The country will not be hosting the trade summit due to recent violent protests and social unrest, Chile's President Sebastian Pinera announced Oct. 30, according to Reuters. The summit was expected to feature a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping after Trump said the two sides were “ahead of schedule” on the agreement’s first phase (see 1910280026). China said the deal’s first phase was “basically completed.”
China’s free trade agreement with Mauritius will give Mauritius duty-free access to 96 percent of Chinese tariff lines as the two sides pledged to continue reducing tariffs on other items, according to an Oct. 28 post from Dezan Shira & Associates. The agreement, announced Oct. 17 (see 1910170027), gives Mauritius duty-free access to about 8,000 Chinese products and covers more than 40 service sectors, the post said. The two countries plan to eliminate tariffs both ways on more than 90 percent of traded goods, the post said.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the changes to the auto rules of origin in the new NAFTA -- which include a wage floor for a proportion of the parts workers or assembly workers -- don't impress the United Auto Workers union.
Vice President Mike Pence, even as he called China "a strategic and economic rival," said that the U.S. wants to keep talking after the phase 1 trade deal is done, in order "to bring about long-overdue structural reforms in our economic relationship. And as I heard again from him this morning, President Trump remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached."
China disputed claims from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that China is stealing U.S. intellectual property and that it is “difficult” for companies to make a profit in China, saying the U.S. is engaging in “bullying practices.” A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry pointed to a recent survey r released by the U.S.-China Business Council, which reported that 97 percent of the council’s members ran a profitable business in China. “I wonder how Mr. Pompeo came to the conclusion?” the spokesperson said during an Oct. 22 press conference.
Britain's beef exporters will have “full access” to the Chinese market for the first time in more than 20 years as part of a deal between the two countries, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade said Oct. 18. China cleared four “beef sites for export” after “extensive inspections” by authorities, who “confirmed that British beef producers meet the necessary standards to export to their market, the UK said. More sites are under review, the UK said, and UK beef exports are expected to be shipped within months.
A top U.S. Department of Agriculture official lauded China’s recent purchases of U.S. agricultural products, saying the “phase one” agreement announced last week is a “positive.”
Mexican officials presented a letter from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal Oct. 17 that he is asking the national legislature and state legislatures to increase what they are spending on labor reform in the coming year, including an additional $18.8 million for federal labor courts, $18 million for local conciliation center, $13.5 million for local labor courts and $10 million for training, public education and verification related to the new contracts. The federal government will provide a property worth $23 million to the new labor center, he said,
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said Mexico has made "another significant step forward" by promising to fully fund new labor courts that will be integral to major labor reform in that country. Neal said he, fellow working group member Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., and committee member Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., met with the Mexican president for an hour and 45 minutes during the recess, an hour longer than scheduled.
China said its negotiators were on the same page with the U.S. during trade talks in Washington last week, answering a question during an Oct. 15 press conference from a reporter who asked whether both sides “have the same understanding” of the deal. “What the U.S. side said is true, and it is the same with our understanding on this agreement,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “This economic and trade agreement will be very important. It will bring benefits to China, the U.S. and the world, and it will contribute to trade and peace.”