U.S., EU and Japan Trade Ministers Meeting

Ambassador Robert E. Lighthizer, United States Trade Representative; Mrs. Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade; and Mr. Hiroshige Seko, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, met in Paris on May 23, 2019 to discuss shared objectives to address non market-oriented policies and practices of third countries that lead to create unfair competitive conditions for their workers and businesses.

During the meeting the ministers reiterated their concerns and agreed to deepen cooperation in the following areas:

1. Market-oriented conditions;
2. Forced technology transfer policies and practices;
3. Industrial subsides and state-owned enterprises;
4. WTO reform;
5. and digital trade and e-commerce.

The Ministers also voiced concerns over industrial subsidies and third parties’ developing State Enterprises into national champions, disrupting market-oriented trade and confirmed that market-oriented conditions are fundamental to a fair, mutually advantageous global trading system. Additionally, the Ministers welcomed progress made in discussions on text-based work on increasing transparency, identifying harmful subsides that merit stricter treatment and ensuring that appropriate benchmarks can be used. Ministers instructed their staff to continue efforts to finalize trilateral text-based work on this issue and to engage with other key WTO Members to strengthen industrial subsidies rules to address market distortions.

The full statement on the meeting can be found here.

U.S. Treasury Foreign Exchange Policy Report

On May 28, 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury delivered to Congress the semiannual Report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. Treasury reviewed and assessed in this report the policies of an expanded set of 21 major U.S. trading partners.  Additionally, Treasury revised and updated the thresholds it uses to assess where unfair currency practices or imbalanced macroeconomic policies may be emerging.

Treasury found that nine major trading partners continue to warrant placement on Treasury’s “Monitoring List” of major trading partners that merit close attention to their currency practices:  China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

The full report can be accessed here.

IPPC CPM Trip Report

A trip report is now available for Katy Lee’s travel to Rome, Italy for the IPPC Commission on Phytosanitary Measures (CPM).  Activities during this mission included:

• Attendance at the IPPC CPM where discussion of electronic phytosanitary certificates (ePhyto) reached 500 delegates.
• Presentation by the IGTC and on behalf of the Chair of the ePhyto Industry Advisory Group (IAG) on industry case studies from the initial phase of the ePhyto Solution.
• Representation of NAEGA and IGTC priorities before the CPM and member government representatives.

The full trip report can be found here.

China Announces Retaliatory Tariffs on U.S. Goods

On Monday, May 13 the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) announced its intention to raise tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. origin goods to 20-25 percent, up from 10 percent. The tariff increase is in response to U.S. President Donald Trump decision to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods from 10 to 25 percent. This tariff leveraging follows an apparent break-down in bilateral talks after negotiations last week between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin and China’s lead negotiator Liu He. Over the past year the U.S. and China have been locked in a cycle of negotiations and tariff retaliation following the announcement by the U.S. of tariffs on Chinese goods in response to China’s intellectual property practices.  

A copy of the MOFCOM announcement can be found here.

U.S. DHS Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program

NAEGA would like to make its members aware of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Program (CFATS). CFATS is the first DHS regulatory program focused specifically on security at high-risk chemical facilities. Any facility that maintains holdings of Chemicals of Interest at or above the quantities and concentrations specified in the CFATS regulation list must comply with CFATS requirements. If DHS determines that a facility is high-risk, the facility must submit for approval a Site Security Plan or an Alternative Security Program that includes security measures to meet applicable risk-based performance standards established by DHS. Following approval, facilities enter into a regular cycle of compliance inspections.

An online screening process quickly determines whether your facility is considered “high-risk” by DHS, and can be found here: www.dhs.gov/chemicalsecurity

More information on CFATS can be found here.