Inside U.S. Trade

Rep. Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.) has introduced legislation that would require the Department of Health and Human Services to assess the public health risks associated with food products imported into the U.S. from foreign facilities and publicly report the findings.

The Trump administration on Monday issued 50 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian goods to counter the country’s restrictions on U.S. alcohol, autos and dairy products, invoking broad but never-before-used statutory powers to apply tariffs in response to trade “discrimination” against U.S. exporters.

The self-described “main takeaway” from this paean to the most-favored-nation foundational principle in the world trade order is that “MFN is one of the institutional innovations that has made the multilateral trading system a durable framework for reciprocal cooperation.” In the second of six promised takes on the “value” of the World Trade Organization, Robert Staiger, the organization’s chief economist, writes that MFN’s “economic significance runs much deeper” than its frequent...

This Week In Trade This Week In Trade U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday as U.S. tariff policy remains in upheaval, thanks to the coming expiration of temporary global tariffs that were intended to in part replicate those overturned by the Supreme Court in February and looming forced labor duties that have yet to be finalized.

Insider Interview The U.S. decision not to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement has fueled significant uncertainty among businesses, investors, workers and consumers that could delay long-term investment decisions and erode North American competitiveness, a former North American Free Trade Agreement negotiator tells Inside U.S. Trade.

The Commerce Department plans to issue new rules setting out processes for adding goods made with steel, aluminum and copper to the scope of U.S. national security duties after the president earlier this year instructed the agency to terminate previous procedures for making such additions -- but the rules likely won’t come for another twelve months, according to the Trump administration’s latest Unified Agenda of regulatory actions.

The Trump administration this week allowed a national emergency with respect to Hong Kong that revoked the city’s “special status” to lapse – a move China said was agreed to during bilateral trade talks in Madrid, Spain, last September. The State Department, however, said the city should still be treated as part of mainland China. President Trump in July 2020 issued an executive order that declared a national emergency with respect to Hong Kong because of actions China took “to... Not a subscriber?

The U.S. and Mexico will convene in Mexico City on Tuesday for a three-day bilateral negotiating round as part of the ongoing joint review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, following what the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Friday described as recent progress by Mexico in addressing several longstanding U.S. trade concerns.

The Canadian and Mexican foreign ministers on Friday defended the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s trilateral nature while accepting that some of the deal’s most difficult issues will be resolved through bilateral talks with Washington. Mexican Foreign Secretary Roberto Velasco and Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand made the case for a pragmatic approach during a joint press conference in Ottawa on Friday following their meeting.

President Trump on Friday accused Canada of “willful negligence” in forest management, linking cross-border wildfire smoke to billions in U.S. economic damages and vowing to incorporate those costs into existing tariffs on Canadian goods.