For more information on how these developments may affect your business, please contact Nicole Bivens Collinson at (202) 730-4956 or via email.
China
At the fifth meeting of the U.S.-China Economic Working Group, held Sept. 19-20 in Beijing, senior officials exchanged views on policies that support balanced growth in the domestic and global economies, domestic macroeconomic outlooks, and areas of cooperation, including debt issues and financing challenges in emerging and developing economies. However, U.S. officials also continued to raise issues of concern, such as signs of increasing overcapacity in certain sectors of the Chinese economy, China’s non-market policies and practices and their impact on U.S. workers and firms, and Chinese firms’ support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
ASEAN
Economic ministers from the U.S. and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met Sept. 20 in Laos to discuss engagements in the areas of labor; agriculture; sustainability; good regulatory practices; micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise development; trade facilitation; the digital economy; and intellectual property rights. At the East Asia Summit economic ministers’ meeting the next day, U.S. officials discussed supply chain resilience, equitable growth, and the importance of trade and the environment.
Supply Chains
The recently-established U.S.-United Kingdom-Australia Supply Chain Resilience Cooperation Group will develop a pilot program that will identify and monitor potential disruptions in the telecommunications sector, including satellite and subsea communications. The pilot will also enhance global understanding of the vulnerabilities in this sector and develop communications channels for sharing this information and facilitating cooperative responses to disruptions.
Ecuador
The inaugural meeting of the Trade and Environment Committee under the U.S.-Ecuador Trade and Investment Council was held Sept. 19 in Quito. Participants exchanged views and priorities regarding trade and environment policies; finalized the committee’s work plan, which establishes a series of in-depth discussions to deepen the bilateral trade relationship; and shared perspectives and experiences on forest sector governance and combating illegal logging and associated trade. U.S. officials also met with local environmental stakeholders to learn about challenges and opportunities on trade-related environmental issues such as illegal logging, plastic pollution and circular economy approaches, biodiversity conservation, wildlife trafficking, and illegal mining.
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