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Margaret Spiegelman

Margaret Spiegelman

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

Archived Articles

Analysts: TTC a step toward repairing U.S.-EU trust, delivering in key areas

The inaugural U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting last week was an early step toward healthier U.S.-European relations likely to be followed by more concrete actions in areas including investment screening, export controls, artificial intelligence and semiconductors, according to former European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström and other analysts. The meeting was held as planned following controversy over a security deal the U.S. struck with Australia and the United Kingdom, leading some EU officials to question whether it should be...

USTR announces deal with Vietnam to resolve Section 301 timber probe

The U.S. has reached an agreement with Vietnam addressing U.S. concerns about Vietnamese timber practices, concluding a Section 301 investigation and determining that trade remedies are not warranted, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced on Friday. USTR last October initiated a probe into the country’s timber practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 -- the first Section 301 investigation to address environmental concerns, according to a statement from USTR. The Trump administration did not release...

South Africa’s WTO ambassador urges action on TRIPS waiver

South Africa’s ambassador to the World Trade Organization on Thursday called on WTO members to face up to the challenges of the pandemic at the upcoming 12th ministerial meeting by agreeing to a waiver on some intellectual property obligations, which she called essential to speed global vaccine distribution, while signaling openness to suggestions made by the European Union and others. “Our view is that the TRIPS waiver is an integral part of any successful outcome at MC12,” Xolelwa Mlumbi-Peter, the...

Goyal: India, U.S. should work toward $1 trillion in trade in 10 years

Indian Minister of Railways, Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Wednesday proposed an ambitious target of $1 trillion for India-U.S. trade in the next decade, lamenting that the two sides had yet to strike a broad trade deal but saying he looks forward to “expanding” India’s economic partnership with the U.S. “Unless we keep some very ambitious targets, we’ll never get there. I’m happy to look at a trillion-dollar target for the next 10 years between the U.S. and India,”...

Portman: Democrats should link TAA to ‘bipartisan trade reform package’

Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) is urging Democrats to reauthorize Trade Adjustment Assistance as part of a broader trade package he says should include the reauthorization of the Generalized System of Preferences, a new Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, trade remedy law reforms and Trade Promotion Authority renewal. In a Sept. 28 letter to Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and ranking member Mike Crapo (R-ID), Portman slammed Democrats for trying “to ram through TAA reauthorization on a partisan basis without comprehensive...

Carper, Cornyn: U.S. must do more to reduce trade barriers on medical goods

Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and John Cornyn (R-TX) are calling on the Biden administration to take a leadership role in international efforts to lower barriers to trade in vaccines and other medical goods, including by working with allies at the World Trade Organization. In a letter on Monday to President Biden , the senators praised his recent announcement at the United Nations that the U.S. would purchase an additional 500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and called on him to...

World Economic Forum: Industry urges trade actions to speed climate work

Industry leaders who have set goals to cut emissions have told the World Economic Forum they are looking for “signals” from trade policymakers that will help them expedite efforts to tackle climate change, according to researchers who compiled a new forum report based on company input. The more than 30 companies interviewed for the report “are often very sophisticated in their thinking around what needs to be done” to address climate change, says Jeremy Stewart, senior associate at the international...

U.S. solar companies urge Commerce to reject AD/CVD circumvention claims

More than 190 U.S. solar companies are calling on the Commerce Department to dismiss requests by an anonymous industry coalition to expand longstanding antidumping and countervailing duty orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules, saying the duties, if imposed, would impede economic recovery and climate goals. An industry group calling itself the American Solar Manufacturers Against Chinese Circumvention (or “A-SMACC”) in August petitioned Commerce to investigate imports of certain solar products from companies in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, where...

Key Senate Democrats: ITC analysis ignores workers, especially of color

A U.S. International Trade Commission analysis of the economic impacts of free trade agreements published in June ignored the adverse trade effects on workers, particularly those of color, according to five leading Senate Democrats who are calling on the ITC’s commissioners to commit to changing how they analyze FTAs. The ITC concluded in its congressionally mandated report that FTAs have had “ small but positive ” economic effects. The report was the second of two analyses called for in the...

Former Commerce official: New AD/CVD rules fix loopholes, inefficiencies

The Commerce Department on Monday published the first overhaul of antidumping and countervailing duty regulations in more than 20 years, aiming to close loopholes and address inefficiencies following a years-long effort that was essentially completed by the end of the Trump administration, according to a former Commerce official who led the push to craft the new regulations. The 282-page rule is fundamentally unchanged from a version signed in January by Jeffrey Kessler before he left his post as assistant secretary...

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