For more information on how these developments may affect your business, please contact Nicole Bivens Collinson at (202) 730-4956 or via email.
Japan
At the third ministerial meeting under the Japan-U.S. Commercial and Industrial Partnership held April 10 in Washington, D.C., senior officials committed to accelerating cooperation toward achieving more transparent, robust, and sustainable supply chains, including addressing non-market policies and practices, and cooperating on current-generation and legacy semiconductors. They also agreed to continue cooperation on export controls to address national security threats and protect critical and emerging technologies from abuse by malign actors.
Philippines
At an April 11 summit the leaders of the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines announced their intent to develop the Luzon Economic Corridor, which will support connectivity between Subic Bay, Clark, Manila, and Batangas in the Philippines by accelerating coordinated investments in rail infrastructure, port modernization, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains, and agribusiness.
Commerce ministers from the three countries also met April 11 to discuss opportunities for potential trilateral trade and investment collaboration, including in the areas of critical minerals supply chains, semiconductors, Open RAN deployment, clean energy, and infrastructure development.
Kenya
The U.S. and Kenya held an in-person negotiating round on a strategic trade and investment partnership April 2-12 in Washington, D.C. According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the two sides primarily exchanged views on the texts that concern agriculture, environment, and workers’ rights. They also discussed textual issues in the chapters on anticorruption and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises.
Latin America
Representatives from the 12 founding members of the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, the U.S., and Uruguay) met in Panama April 11 to review progress in advancing the commitments made by leaders at the inaugural APEP leaders’ summit last November. Discussions focused on the short-term and long-term outcomes of the eight initial working groups—entrepreneurship, digital workforce development, clean hydrogen, rule of law, sustainable health infrastructure, sustainable food production, water and basic sanitation, and space.
The U.S. and Uruguay signed April 11 a memorandum of understanding that seeks to increase cooperation and chart a concrete path forward on the development and deployment of select critical and emerging technologies. The MOU launches a bilateral working group that will focus on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, data flows, clean energy, telecommunications, cybersecurity, and biotechnology. Among other things, the two sides will seek to identify opportunities to support the development and use of relevant international standards for these technologies and encouraging interoperability and global compatibility with those standards.
Iceland
At the fifth Economic Partnership Dialogue meeting held April 11 in Washington, D.C., officials from the U.S. and Iceland discussed the need to deepen joint work on supply chain resilience, investment security, and protection of critical infrastructure. They also agreed to continue collaboration on carbon management, hydrogen, and geothermal energy through the U.S.-Iceland Energy and Climate Partnership.
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