USTR

Senate appropriators are proposing a modest budget hike for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in fiscal year 2026 and want the Trump administration to provide more information on the trade negotiations the administration has commenced with a slew of countries. The Senate Appropriations Committee is proposing that USTR receive a $6 million increase to its FY25 budget of $59 million; Trump’s budget request calls for a hike of $13 million. The panel also has joined other lawmakers in...

The White House Council of Economic Advisers is touting the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s planned use of trade remedies to boost U.S. shipbuilding as a way to boost liquefied natural gas exports, part of a broader administration strategy to “unleash” the domestic energy sector. On July 17, CEA published a report titled “ The Economic Benefits of Unleashing American Energy ” that highlights several policy initiatives the administration has launched to benefit fossil-fuel production and nuclear generation, including...

President Trump has picked an assistant U.S. Trade Representative to serve as the agency’s chief agricultural negotiator. Julie Callahan, AUSTR for agricultural affairs and commodity policy, was announced as the nominee for the deputy USTR slot on Thursday. Callahan has been with the agency since 2016, serving first as senior director for agricultural affairs, then deputy AUSTR. She was promoted to AUSTR in 2020. “In this role, she oversees work to promote the interests of U.S. farmers, ranchers and food...

Brazil is warning President Trump that his threatened 50 percent tariffs on the country’s exports and just-launched investigation into alleged “unfair” trade practices risk undermining a 200-year trade relationship, urging the U.S. to resume negotiations on a “reciprocal” trade deal it says have been stalled since mid-June. Brazil’s foreign affairs and trade ministries announced July 16 that they sent a joint letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer the previous day pushing back on Trump’s recent tariff threats. “The imposition...

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s investigation of Brazil’s trade practices will cover a wide range of longstanding U.S. concerns, from digital trade to ethanol to deforestation -- as well as “preferential trade arrangements” with large countries including India and Mexico. In a Federal Register notice released on Tuesday evening, USTR said it would probe far more than the digital trade policies mentioned by President Trump in a July 9 letter to Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva...

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should open a Section 301 investigation into the use of harmful veterinary drugs in seafood farming in China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, according to a request filed this week by domestic producers. In a July 14 letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, a coalition of producers consisting of the Oregon Trawl Commission, the Southern Shrimp Alliance and four Louisiana-based crawfish companies called on the agency to open a probe under Section 301...

Thirty-five Republican lawmakers on Monday called on U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to tackle foreign pharmaceutical price controls and other practices they say unfairly shift costs for developing new treatments onto the U.S. healthcare system, calling for the establishment of a position at USTR focused on the issue. The lawmakers, led by Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Jodey Arrington (R-TX), told Greer in a July 14 letter they were “encouraged” by the agency’s May notice calling for public input on...

The U.S., Mexico and Canada touted progress on implementing environmental commitments made under their renegotiated trade deal during a trilateral review concluded last month, according to a joint statement posted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. A “ Joint Statement of the Environment Committee of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on the Five-Year Review on the Implementation and Operation of the Environment Chapter,” dated June 30, was issued on USTR’s website in recent weeks without any accompanying comment by...