For more information on these and other U.S. trade negotiations and discussions and how your company could benefit, please contact Nicole Bivens Collinson at (202) 730-4956 or via email.
APEP
The U.S. will host the inaugural Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity leaders’ summit Nov. 3 in Washington, D.C. The APEP was announced in January as what U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai called “a new type of economic arrangement” focused on “problems that will shape the coming decades,” such as eradicating forced labor, increasing supply chain resilience, fostering innovation, and tackling climate change. However, no negotiations have yet been held and it appears that the upcoming summit will only offer further information on the anticipated scope of the initiative.
China
The U.S. and China held Oct. 23 the first meeting of their Economic Working Group, which the Treasury Department said serves as an ongoing channel to discuss and facilitate progress on bilateral economic policy matters. Topics of discussion at the virtual two-hour meeting included domestic and global macroeconomic developmentsm and “U.S. officials also frankly raised areas of concern” (though no specifics were given).
WTO
According to a Reuters article, the U.S. “is withdrawing proposals made in 2019 by the Trump administration insisting that WTO e-commerce rules allow free cross-border data flows and prohibit national requirements for data localization and reviews of software source code.” Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called the move “ a win for the Chinese government’s efforts to have unlimited access to U.S. data, a win for Chinese tech giants who want to bully smaller countries into following the Chinese model of internet censorship, and a win for China’s Great Firewall, which locks out American companies and locks Chinese citizens into a repressive regime of government surveillance.” However, Melinda St. Louis, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, countered that the decision “brings U.S. trade policy in line with President Biden’s AI Bill of Rights” and constitutes “a major step toward creating the ‘worker-centered trade’ the Biden administration envisions.”
Australia
The U.S. and Australia announced Oct. 25 their intent to “partner in new ways” on a broad range of issues, including increasing investment in critical minerals mining and processing projects, mapping complementary production capacities across critical minerals supply chains, and enhancing collaboration on traceability practices for verifying the provenance of critical minerals and commodities.
EU-New Zealand FTA
The European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade approved Oct. 24 a free trade agreement between the European Union and New Zealand, which would remove 100 percent of New Zealand’s tariffs on EU exports immediately upon its entry into force and 98.5 percent of EU tariffs on New Zealand exports after seven years (including 91 percent on day one). The EU would impose tariff-rate quotas on New Zealand products such as sheep meat, beef, butter, cheese, and milk powder. The FTA could take effect by mid-2024.
Arctic Region
As part of its implementation plan for the National Strategy for the Arctic Region, the White House said the U.S. will aim to increase bilateral trade with Greenland, including by tackling barriers to trade and investment and assessing the commercial viability of an Arctic Chamber of Commerce. Other efforts will include strengthening capacity across the region to monitor prospective investments based on national security, environmental sustainability, and supply chain resilience concerns; exploring the potential for critical mineral production in Alaska; and expanding private sector-led investment in the region, including in critical minerals.
Africa
The U.S., the EU, and others signed Oct. 26 a memorandum of understanding to support the development of the Lobito Corridor, which will connect the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the northwestern part of Zambia to regional and global trade markets via the port of Lobito in Angola. Cooperation among the signatories will focus on transport infrastructure investments; measures to facilitate trade, economic development, and transit; and support to related sectors.
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