A Call for More Surgical Use of Existing Trade Laws

The main rationale of the Trade Expansion Act, as its title suggests, is quite different – to enable the president to open markets in the context of multilateral negotiating rounds by reducing tariffs. [...] The act authorizes the president to take appropriate action, including tariff and non-tariff forms of retaliation, to remove any act, policy or practice of a foreign government that violates an international trade agreement or is “unjustified, unreasonable, or discriminatory, and that burdens or restricts U. S. commerce.” As a market opening tool, section 301 allows the USTR to self-initiate an in [...] If that is not achieved, the statute authorizes the president to impose unilateral sanctions, such as the ones A Call for More Surgical Use of Existing Trade Laws Page 1 by Lawrence Herman November 2020 A Call for More Surgical Use of Existing Trade Laws applied to Chinese goods in 2018 after an investigation into China’s intellectual property laws and policies.1 In the last few months, the USTR’s [...] The weapon is section 53 of the Customs Tariff, a provision that can be applied by the federal cabinet almost without restriction in response to a foreign country’s actions, including breaches of trade agreements that injure Canadian economic and trade interests. [...] Section 53 says: Notwithstanding this Act or any other Act of Parliament, the Governor in Council may, on the recommendation of the Minister and of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, by order, for the purpose of enforcing Canada’s rights under a trade agreement in relation to a country or of responding to acts, policies or practices of the government of a country that adversely affect, or lead direc