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Margaret Spiegelman

Margaret Spiegelman

Margaret Spiegelman is an associate editor with Inside U.S. Trade.

Archived Articles

Wyden, Neal urge Tai to shift gears in Kenya talks from STIP to FTA

The top Democrats on the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means committees are calling on U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to “transition” trade discussions underway with Kenya into talks on a comprehensive free trade agreement. In a May 21 letter to Tai, Finance Chair Ron Wyden (OR) and Ways & Means ranking member Richard Neal (MA) said they were “encouraged” by USTR’s progress negotiating the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership, launched in 2022, but added that they wanted...

Wyden: Probe exposes ‘major gaps’ in automakers’ forced labor oversight

An investigation by Democratic Senate Finance Committee staff reveals critical blind spots in automakers’ efforts to comply with a ban on imports made with forced labor, Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) said on Monday, urging U.S. Customs and Border Protection to “crack down” on companies that violate the ban. Wyden in December 2022 launched the probe following a report by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University that alleged some automakers had links to suppliers that relied on forced labor in the...

Official: U.S., Canada developing ‘work plan’ for joint regulatory effort

The U.S. and Canada are advancing efforts to revive a dormant bilateral council for regulatory cooperation, Canadian Treasury Board President Anita Anand told Inside U.S. Trade following a meeting with a top Biden administration official in Washington. Anand in March announced she was spearheading an effort to breathe new life into the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council, established in 2011 as a forum to reduce gaps between the two countries’ regulatory frameworks in areas like health, safety and environmental protections...

Tai to host fourth USMCA Free Trade Commission talks in Phoenix

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will host the fourth meeting of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement Free Trade Commission in Arizona on May 22, USTR said on Friday. Tai will travel to Phoenix on May 21 for bilateral meetings with Mexican Secretary of Economy Raquel Buenrostro and Canadian Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development Mary Ng. The next day, Tai will host the fourth Free Trade Commission meeting, after which the three ministers will “participate in a...

Lawmakers propose sanctioning ships loaded at ‘expropriated’ ports

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill that would ban ships loaded at ports located on property “expropriated” by foreign governments from docking in the U.S., measures they say are needed to address recent actions by the Mexican government. The “ Defending American Property Abroad Act ,” led by Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), was crafted to prohibit “trade partners in the Western Hemisphere from engaging in certain activities, such as docking vessels and importing goods, if...

White House set to close Section 201 exclusion for bifacial solar panels

The Biden administration on Thursday announced a slew of actions it says will boost U.S. solar manufacturing and counter unfair Chinese government trade practices, including closing a controversial tariff exclusion for two-sided solar panels that represent the major share of U.S. panel imports. The new measures, announced by the White House in a fact sheet , come amid rising concerns from U.S. solar manufacturers that investments spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act are at risk because of dumped and subsidized...

Commerce opens AD/CVD probes into solar imports from Southeast Asia 

The Commerce Department on Wednesday announced it was opening investigations requested by a coalition of domestic producers into solar imports from Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, which the petitioners claim are threatening investments enabled by the Inflation Reduction Act. The “American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee,” a coalition that includes U.S. producers First Solar, Inc., Hanwha Q CELLS USA, Inc. and Mission Solar Energy LLC, filed petitions last month alleging that unfairly priced and subsidized imports of crystalline silicon...

301 review sparks praise, criticism and -- from China -- a pledge to retaliate

The Biden administration’s plan to raise tariffs on electric vehicles and other products from China in “strategic” sectors is drawing a mix of praise and criticism from domestic stakeholders -- and, from Beijing, a promise to take “resolute measures” to defend itself. The administration early on Tuesday said it was maintaining tariffs on most imports from China while raising them steeply on EVs, semiconductors, solar products, steel and aluminum, among other goods. The action, which followed the Office of the...

USTR still ‘confident’ in RRM despite ‘disappointing’ first panel report

The Biden administration “remains steadfastly committed” to using tools under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to address labor issues stemming from a long-running dispute at a mine in Zacatecas, Mexico, despite an adverse panel ruling under the agreement’s novel rapid-response mechanism, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said on Monday. The first-of-its-kind panel, launched last year by the U.S. over a thorny dispute between a mine owned by a subsidiary of the Grupo México conglomerate and an independent miners’ union, has...

U.S. lawmakers continue to press for action on Mexican port shutdown

Four senators this week warned the Mexican government that they will consider “all available remedies” if the country does not reverse course on what they say are unlawful actions against a U.S.-owned port and quarry facility that could undermine trade relations. In a May 9 letter to Mexican Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena, the senators -- Foreign Relations Committee members Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Tim Kaine (D-VA), along with Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and Katie Britt (R-AL) -- urged her...

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