WASHINGTON, Oct 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – US officials announced Tuesday
negotiations for separate trade agreements with Britain, the European Union
and Japan as part of efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to
rebalance global commerce.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the administration notified
Congress of its intent to negotiate the three separate trade agreements.
“We are committed to concluding these negotiations with timely and
substantive results for American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses,”
Lighthizer said in a statement.
The move follows the Trump administration’s renegotiation of the North
American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico and its push to correct
what Trump maintains is an unbalanced trade picture.
In the notifications to Congress on Japan and the EU, Lighthizer cited
“chronic US trade imbalances” and said that US exporters have been long
“challenged” by tariff and non-tariff barriers in Japan and in Europe.
The goal, he said, is to achieve “fairer, more balanced” trade with the US
trading partners.
Lighthizer said the US would seek a trade agreement with Britain as soon
as it exits the European Union in 2019.
The letter to Congress said Washington would seek to address tariff and
non-tariff barriers and achieve “free, fair and reciprocal trade” with the
United Kingdom.
– Playing hardball –
Trump has been playing hardball with US trading partners, using tariffs
and threats in an effort to boost US exports and curb the longstanding
deficit in merchandise trade, despite warnings from many US lawmakers and the
International Monetary Fund.
Trump in May had ordered Commerce to investigate the possibility of
imposing tariffs of up to 25 percent on foreign autos and auto parts, a
prospect that alarmed the industry and could have serious repercussions for
Japan and Europe.
“We need to work together to de-escalate and resolve the current trade
disputes,” IMF chief Christine Lagarde said at an IMF and World Bank
gathering in Bali last week.
Trump has levied or threatened tariffs on goods from economies around the
world, notably China, but also on traditional allies such as the European
Union.
More tariffs and their countermeasures “could lead to a broader tightening
of financial conditions, with negative implications for the global economy
and financial stability,” the fund warned.
The new talks, if successful, would address trade with Europe and Japan
but leaves the thornier challenge of China, which accounts for more than half
the US trade deficit.
The US trade deficit ballooned in August to its highest level in six
months, according to government figures showing American consumers snapped up
more imported cars and mobile phones.
The total US trade deficit rose 6.4 percent over July to $53.2 billion,
overshooting analyst forecasts.
Despite Trump’s efforts to attack the trade deficit, so far this year it
has risen 8.6 percent over the same period in 2017.
The gap in goods trade with China rose to $38.6 billion for August and
with Mexico hit $8.7 billion — both the highest monthly totals ever.
The August figures suggested retaliatory tariffs imposed by China
continued to whipsaw American farmers, whose rural counties Trump’s
Republican Party traditionally counts on for political support.