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Margaret Spiegelman

Margaret Spiegelman

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

Archived Articles

Malmström: ‘Exceptional’ shipping crisis could take long to resolve

An unprecedented shipping crisis -- stemming in part from pandemic-driven consumer demand and deficient infrastructure -- could prove a long-term challenge even after the coronavirus crisis subsides, former European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said on Wednesday. “The pandemic has brought the biggest disruption since the start of the container ship, 65 years ago,” Malmström, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics said during a PIIE webinar about “The Future of Global Shipping.” That disruption translates to...

U.S. plans to unveil green tech purchasing initiatives by COP26

The Biden administration is developing initiatives to grow markets for green technologies that it hopes to have ready in time for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, a White House official said on Tuesday. “We're working really closely with [the Commerce Department’s Office of Energy and Environmental Industries] to think about how we can comprehensively make the U.S. clean tech sector more competitive, primarily through exports,” Sagatom Saha, a special adviser on “clean energy innovation competitiveness” for Climate Envoy...

U.S.-based Russian steelmaker bashes Commerce for tariff exclusion denials

A U.S. division of one of Russia’s largest steelmakers is claiming the Commerce Department wrongfully denied its Section 232 tariff exclusion requests for steel slab after taking part in secret conversations with its U.S. competitors that the company says “tainted the entire process.” NLMK Pennsylvania, LLC, last week filed a complaint at the U.S. Court of International Trade about Commerce’s rejection of requests made in 2020 and 2021 for exclusions from steel tariffs imposed in 2018 by the Trump administration...

USTR official: Broad trade deal with Brazil unlikely due to lawmakers’ concerns

Brazil still is pushing for a comprehensive free trade agreement -- or, failing that, a “building-block” approach to deeper trade ties -- with the U.S., the country’s foreign affairs minister said on Friday, though a senior Office of the U.S. Trade Representative official said congressional concerns about the Brazilian government’s environmental and social record still complicate the outlook for any deal. “We certainly favor a wide-ranging and ambitious trade agreement with the United States, but if that is not feasible...

High-level U.S.-Mexico economic talks focused on shared efforts, not trade spats

Cabinet-level U.S. and Mexican officials meeting in Washington on Thursday steered clear of contentious trade issues between the two countries while focusing on stronger continental integration, including improved trade facilitation and data flows, according to a senior Mexican official. The meeting marked a restart to the U.S.-Mexico “High-Level Economic Dialogue,” a forum established during the Obama administration in 2013 under then-Vice President Joe Biden and suspended during the Trump administration. Led by Vice President Kamala Harris, the talks focused on...

U.S-Africa trade ministerial set for October as USTR looks beyond AGOA

A virtual U.S.-Africa “trade ministerial” set for next month will provide a platform for U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to engage with African counterparts and others as USTR looks to chart a path beyond the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a senior agency official said on Wednesday. The U.S.-Africa trade ministerial will be held Oct. 20-21, Deputy Assistant USTR for Africa Bennett Harman said on Wednesday during the U.S.-Ghana Business Forum, a two-day virtual event hosted by the U.S. Chamber...

U.S. energy company files USMCA investor dispute notice with Mexico

Texas-based Talos Energy Inc. on Friday filed a notice of dispute with Mexico under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement over the country’s decision to grant authority over a major oil field to a state-controlled company. Talos in 2017 led a consortium of companies that discovered the Zama oil field in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the world’s largest shallow-water oil discoveries in the past two decades. The consortium had made a successful bid in 2015 for the block containing the oilfield...

Florida’s agriculture chief: Mexico’s ‘deceptive’ practices demand U.S. action

Mexico’s agricultural exports are threatening Florida growers, according to the state’s agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried, who is calling on the federal government to take action against what she describes as Mexico’s “very deceptive, very deliberate” attempts to “take over” U.S. markets. Fried, Florida’s lone statewide elected Democrat and a vocal critic of Mexico’s agricultural trade practices, is running for governor against Republican incumbent Ron DeSantis. She spoke to Inside U.S. Trade this week. Her office this week issued a...

U.S. Chamber urges revisions to Democrats’ carbon border adjustment plan

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is warning that a carbon border adjustment measure some prominent Democrats are considering could harm clean energy industries and asking lawmakers to further study the issue before moving forward with legislation. Chamber representatives met in August with lawmakers to share a “set of principles” on the development of a carbon border adjustment measure, according to a blog post published on Wednesday by Dan Byers, vice president for the business group’s Global Energy Institute. “Here in...

Importers eye reform to ease CAFTA-DR apparel rules

Apparel importers are calling on the U.S. to ease restrictions in the Dominican-Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, saying their proposed reforms would support the Biden administration’s interests in near-shoring and improving economic conditions in Central America to stem migration. According to Beth Hughes, vice president for trade and customs policy at the American Apparel and Footwear Association, overly strict rules of origin have made it difficult for the apparel industry to “increase competitiveness” in the region since the deal was...

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