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Margaret Spiegelman

Margaret Spiegelman

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

Archived Articles

Former commissioners assess an ITC probe of trade and the underserved

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s call for a U.S. International Trade Commission study of how trade impacts underserved communities, the latest in a succession of requests by administrations and lawmakers that have shaped the ITC’s work over many decades, is likely to “raise the level of debate” on issues key to the Biden administration's worker-centric trade policy, former commissioner Dean Pinkert tells Inside U.S. Trade . Tai in October sent a letter to ITC Chair Jason Kearns asking the commission...

USTR praises CAFTA-DR textile rules of origin amid calls for change

Deputy U.S. Trade Representatives Sarah Bianchi and Jayme White on Friday said provisions in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement are key to supporting regional investment in the textile industry as companies look to near-shore production -- staking out a position at odds with apparel importers and others calling for the U.S. to ease the agreement’s sourcing requirements to help boost exports in the near term. Bianchi and White on Friday co-chaired a roundtable discussion with U.S. textile executives...

Mexico, EU, Japan, others voice concern about proposed U.S. EV tax credit

More than two dozen ambassadors to the U.S. are urging lawmakers to rethink a proposed tax credit for electric vehicles they say would violate international trading rules and hinder efforts to meet climate goals. A proposed budget bill framework released last week by President Biden includes tax credits for electric vehicles “made in America with American materials and union labor,” according to a White House statement . Lawmakers are expected to vote on the budget as soon as Tuesday, according...

EU official: Carbon border adjustment, international coordination ‘not at odds’

As world leaders prepare to gather in Glasgow for the United Nations Climate Change Conference next week, a high-level EU trade official on Thursday defended the bloc’s proposed carbon border adjustment system, saying its implementation – sure to be a topic in Scotland – will not “preclude” international efforts to address climate change. “There are some who pose the question: Is it either CBAM or international coordination? We see that these are fully compatible,” Madelaine Tuininga, head of unit for...

Ambassador: U.S., EU should include Brazil in Section 232 talks

Brazil should be included in discussions between the U.S. and the European Union on how to resolve disputes over steel and aluminum imports, Brazil’s ambassador to the U.S., Nestor Forster, said on Wednesday. Forster, speaking during a webinar hosted by the Brazil-U.S. Business Council, noted that the steel and aluminum talks are “only between” the U.S. and the EU. “We would like to see Brazil be invited to join those discussions,” he said. The U.S. and the EU have been...

Korea, China, others urge work program to end WTO Appellate Body holdup

Several World Trade Organization members on Tuesday recommended using the WTO’s upcoming ministerial to establish a work program aimed at reviving the Appellate Body, which has been nonfunctional since 2019, according to a Geneva-based trade official. The U.S. has been blocking appointments to the Appellate Body since mid-2017, leaving it unable to hear new appeals as of December 2019. It has no members today. Korea, China and Australia, along with Nigeria -- representing the African Group -- used Tuesday’s Dispute...

Democrats call for probe into reports of forced labor in Dominican sugar

House Ways & Means trade subcommittee Chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and other House Democrats on Monday called for a “swift and thorough investigation” into reports of forced labor in the Dominican sugar industry, saying U.S. efforts to address labor rights violations there have fallen short. “Disturbing news reports have recently detailed appalling conditions under which sugarcane workers of Haitian-Dominican descent continue to live and labor to produce sugar in the Dominican Republic for U.S. consumption,” Blumenauer said in a...

Canada, Mexico warn U.S. proposed EV tax credits could violate USMCA

Canada and Mexico are warning U.S. lawmakers that proposed incentives for U.S.-made electric vehicles could run afoul of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, according to letters seen by Inside U.S. Trade . Canada’s minister of small business, export promotion and international trade, Mary Ng, in an Oct. 22 letter to U.S. House and Senate leaders, said elements of proposed EV tax credits under consideration in both chambers “would undermine decades of United States-Canada cooperation to foster a mutually beneficial integrated automotive production...

Industry groups urge action on ocean carriers’ practices, chassis shortage

Groups representing agricultural exporters, retailers and other industries are calling on the federal government to address what they describe as unfair practices by ocean carriers amid pandemic-related shipping bottlenecks and chassis shortages they say are exacerbating the problem. The groups’ recommendations are among many offered in comments to the Biden administration as it reviews supply chain constraints in the transportation sector. The Transportation Department last month issued a request for public comments, due by Oct. 18, to inform a report...

Kenyan, Mauritian trade ministers call for clarity on AGOA’s future

Ahead of a U.S.-Africa trade ministerial set to be hosted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative this week, trade ministers from Kenya and Mauritius on Tuesday said they hoped the U.S. would soon provide more certainty about the future of its trade-policy cornerstone with countries in sub-Saharan Africa. “It's really critical for the U.S. to indicate … the sort of regime that it hopes to open up for Africa if AGOA is not extended,” Kenyan Trade Minister Betty...

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