Every Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee told U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that while they want changes to USMCA as part of the six-year review of the pact, he should make clear that the U.S. plans to keep the trilateral free trade agreement, and that he is committed to "a durable, mutually beneficial relationship with our partners that ensures the gains from trade are shared broadly both within and across our North American markets."
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the administration will solicit comments on which types of "non-sensitive goods" should get tariff relief, so that trade can be facilitated between the U.S. and China.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Goettman said he doesn't know if his agency will be able to release conclusions from Section 301 investigations on which countries' actions or inactions have burdened U.S. commerce by the end of June, but he said that once the conclusions are released, there will be an opportunity for stakeholders to comment on those conclusions.
The trade truce between China and the U.S. is more properly thought of as a stalemate, said Mary Lovely, a scholar of the bilateral trade relationship at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
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Former U.S. trade negotiators said that Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia don't know how to react to U.S. anger over growing exports to its market.
Government officials from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, Indonesia, Vietnam and India, along with a lawyer speaking on behalf of Egypt, said their countries shouldn't face tariffs because the U.S. alleges they are not keeping forced labor out of supply chains.
Panelists during an interagency's Section 301 review hearing asked industry witnesses for data about how prices are affected by efforts to source from companies determined to be free of forced labor.
Former trade negotiators said the press reports that Canada is being confronted with major demands -- not just the dairy TRQs -- ahead of even starting USMCA negotiations aren't a good sign, because negotiating in the press means no one's really getting down to business.
Altana, which has a multi-year contract with CBP to map supply chains that the agency can use to address forced labor, says that $86 billion worth of goods with supply chain exposure to forced labor was exported to North America in 2024 and 2025, with more than 80% of it headed directly to the U.S.