USTR

Nearly a month after President Trump’s Aug. 1 deadline for new deals with dozens of U.S. trading partners, the administration continues to negotiate the details of several high-profile agreements he announced during that window while continuing talks with other countries -- including China, which is sending negotiators to Washington this week after months of meetings in third countries. While the White House announced a litany of high-profile trade agreements in the weeks leading up to Aug. 1, many came with...

The Republican and Democratic leaders of the congressional steel caucus are pressing the Trump administration not to accept any arrangements with trading partners that would water down U.S. national security duties on steel. Caucus Chair Rick Crawford (R-AR) and vice chair Frank Mrvan (D-IN) lauded the administration’s recent expansion of steel duties imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 while raising concerns about the possibility of such arrangements in an Aug. 4 letter , to Commerce...

The second-ever panel established under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s novel rapid-response mechanism has sided with Washington, concluding that workers at a Mexican call center were denied their rights and that the violations had not been sufficiently remediated. The U.S. in early 2024 asked Mexico to review allegations of employer interference in worker organizing at Atento Servicios, S.A. de C.V. in Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo, following an RRM petition by Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana (STRM), a Mexican union. Mexico...

The U.S. and the European Union on Thursday issued a much-anticipated joint statement laying out commitments each side has made under a recently announced trade deal, including a U.S. promise to implement a 15 percent cap on automotive, semiconductor and pharmaceutical duties once the EU proposes legislation to eliminate tariffs on U.S. industrial goods. The statement clarifies aspects of the deal announced late last month by President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after which fact sheets...

Stakeholders from the U.S. and Brazil have weighed in on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s probe into Brazil, with some major U.S. business groups raising concerns about a host of digital policies and other measures they say hinder U.S. trade while expressing hope that outcome of the probe will be fewer trade barriers -- not more. USTR heard from industry representatives, civil society groups and others in written comments due earlier this week on a Section 301 (of...

The Brazilian government has denounced a U.S. trade probe as illegitimate in a new and detailed submission to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, pushing back on claims at the center of that investigation on digital rules, tariffs and more. The 91-page comment , signed by Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira, was filed late Monday along with numerous other submissions by stakeholders from Brazil and the U.S. who weighed in on a Section 301 (of the Trade Act...

The U.S. must negotiate the rescission of Canada’s Online Streaming Act in trade talks with Ottawa, nearly 20 House Ways & Means Committee Republicans say, charging the measure discriminates against U.S. companies. The Online Streaming Act, passed in 2023, subjects online platforms like YouTube, Netflix and Spotify to Canada’s broadcast regulations, angering U.S. tech groups and some lawmakers. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), a government regulatory agency, last year delayed its implementation until the end of 2025. When...