Asia

“Not only is the third tranche more than four times the size of the first two combined, it contains a much higher percentage of consumer goods relative to intermediate and capital goods – including numerous goods that do not benefit from the 'Made in China 2025' policy.”

“Punishment was commonly used in the British-style schools in the old days and in China’s schools even until when I was a boy. But nowadays, schools seldom use such approaches.... Punitive approaches lead to far more negative effects than positive ones.”

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has not told industry executives that future Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods were on hold, his office told Inside U.S. Trade on Thursday.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission is recommending that Congress review with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative the possibility of initiating cases at the World Trade Organization challenging Chinese trade abuses using the rarely cited non-violation clause of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

While the U.S. and China have resumed talks on a potential trade arrangement that could be struck at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month, according to White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Vice President Mike Pence said this week that any deal would have to include a complete “change of posture.”

The Wall Street Journal reports on a phone call that could pave the way for more substantive discussions.

“If you're going to pull out of TPP, great, but then you need to have a bilateral agreement of some sort and that's not even being discussed at this point because USTR is so busy. Countries like Indonesia just get left in the dust.”

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Friday accused Wall Street “billionaires” of acting as “unpaid foreign agents” on behalf of the Chinese government because they are trying to convince the White House to broker a deal with Beijing at the G20 summit in Argentina this month.

National Foreign Trade Council President Rufus Yerxa said Thursday that the business community supports the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and indicated the group would begin its lobbying efforts on behalf of the deal soon.