Europe

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is expected to notify to Congress as soon as this week that the administration intends to formally launch trade negotiations with Japan, the European Union and the United Kingdom, according to several sources with knowledge of the plans.

The U.S. and more than a dozen other World Trade Organization countries have criticized United Kingdom and European Union plans for post-Brexit market access and government procurement, citing questions about the accuracy of the data and whether the proposals rise to the level of commitment wanted by other members.

The U.S. wants a trade deal with Japan that is at least as good as the one Tokyo recently struck with the European Union, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said on Thursday.

The U.S. told fellow World Trade Organization member countries this week that its $12 billion trade aid package for farmers was a one-time expenditure that would not put the country over its WTO agriculture support limits, according to a Geneva trade official.

Eleven right-leaning and libertarian think tanks from the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Tuesday released their vision of an “ideal” free trade agreement between the two countries, which includes advanced regulatory recognition, freely flowing labor and a rule-of-origin content threshold of 25 percent.

He and his UK counterpart discussed the upcoming fifth meeting of the U.S.-UK Trade and Investment Working Group, set for November in Washington.

European Union and U.S. officials this week presented starkly different perceptions of the trans-Atlantic relationship this week, with U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland painting a rosy picture of a strong partnership made stronger under the Trump administration and European Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan portraying the EU as a skeptical, reluctant trading partner that will push back against President Trump's short-sighted trade policies.