WTO CHIEF URGES SUBSIDY CUTS: Countries should start negotiations to reduce trillions of dollars in fossil fuel, agriculture and other subsidies that harm the environment, the head of the World Trade Organization said Friday. “We … have about $1.7 trillion in subsidies that are not helpful, that are actually distorting trade, environment and so on,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said at the Cato Institute. “Why can't we phase out the subsidies and direct those resources actually to helping developing countries finance the transition to net zero?” She specifically mentioned about $1.2 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies, $680 billion in farm subsidies, $200 billion in water subsidies and $22 billion in fishing subsidies that she said should be reduced. Of those, only the fishing subsidies are currently the focus of negotiations at the WTO. Tariff reform also would help: Okonjo-Iweala does not have power as director-general to order countries to negotiate on a particular topic, and it’s unlikely the membership will launch talks as ambitious as she suggested anytime soon. However, she said the WTO Committee on Trade and the Environment was “working very hard” to devise ways of using trade policy to help fight climate change. Along those lines, Okonjo-Iweala advocated for countries to cut tariffs on renewable energy and other environmentally friendly goods. “If you look at the tariff regimes in many countries, you will find that the tariffs on renewables and cleaner goods are often higher than for fossil fuel products,” she said. Food security fight: Okonjo-Iweala also downplayed the possibility that a clash over India’s food security program would prevent countries from achieving meaningful results at the WTO’s ministerial conference next month. “Before a ministerial, members take all kinds of positions,” Okonjo-Iweala said. “They will say all sorts of things about ‘I won't do this. This is a red line.’ … So I don't really, I don't think we should take to heart anything that is said.” Reminder: The WTO chief was responding to a report written by former WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell, who described a “calamitous” virtual meeting at the end of November. The Indian government, Rockwell wrote in a piece for D.C. think tank the Wilson Center, threatened to block any outcome at the upcoming ministerial unless other countries agreed to permanently shield its public food stockholding program from challenges under WTO rules on trade-distorting farm subsidies. Doug has more on that here. TAI WRAPS UP INDIA TRIP: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai is back in Washington today after a quick trip to India last week for the annual Trade Policy Forum. While there was no banner headline from the meeting, the two sides discussed an array of concerns in areas including agriculture, manufacturing, services, intellectual property and resilient trade. Future agenda: Tai and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal also “identified certain areas, including critical minerals, customs and trade facilitation, supply chains, and trade in high tech products, in which the United States and India will develop an ambitious and forward looking roadmap for enhanced cooperation in order to achieve economically meaningful outcomes,” according to a joint statement. “The Ministers committed to pursue these efforts with a view to establish the foundation to launch future joint initiatives,” the statement said. WTO ministerial: During a separate meeting with India’s minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the two officials “discussed their shared desire to work constructively together to ensure a successful 13th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi next month,” USTR said in a readout. They also expressed their mutual interest in working together to enhance supply chain resilience to withstand future global economic shocks, USTR said. USTR PERSONNEL SHAKE-UP: Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi will soon step down from her role at the agency, according to two people familiar with the decision, opening up a second vacancy among three deputy slots at the trade office, Gavin reports. Bianchi was confirmed in an 85-11 vote in September 2021 and oversaw a portfolio that included Asia, Africa and industrial competitiveness, as well as the trade pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the administration’s new-look trade deal for Asia. The departure of a senior negotiator will diminish confidence among already skeptical trading partners that an agreement will be possible. Additionally, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai will name her senior adviser, Jamila Thompson, as the new acting chief of staff at the agency when Heather Hurlburt leaves later this month, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss personnel moves that were not yet public. Thompson’s appointment will be seen as a victory for progressives at the agency and for Tai’s “worker-centered” trade policy. TAI CONFIRMS END OF MONTH TTC SUMMIT: A long-awaited U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting will happen Jan. 30, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai confirmed Friday, Doug reports. DEM SCRUTINY MOUNTS OVER CUNNINGHAM: Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Democrats' top House appropriator, is the latest lawmaker to balk at the White House’s nomination for deputy USTR, Nelson Cunningham, over his record in Washington. “Our trade nominees should have a track record of fighting off efforts to outsource good-paying American jobs. On these metrics, Mr. Cunningham has failed,” DeLauro said in a statement. Reminder: The White House announced last week that it would tap Cunningham, the Clinton-era economic hand for the deputy USTR role, following our scoop on the nomination. What’s the matter? Cunningham, a special adviser to President Bill Clinton in the Office of Special Envoy for the Americas before co-founding McLarty Associates in 1998, would take over a portfolio that includes Europe and the Western Hemisphere if confirmed. The leaders of the Senate Finance and Banking committees, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), expressed reservations about Cunningham and his decades of work in Washington, which they argued was spent serving the interests of major corporations. Meanwhile, the decision gained praise from some moderate Democrats, as well as corporate groups such as the National Foreign Trade Council. FWIW: Cunningham outlined his philosophy in a 2016 POLITICO op-ed titled the liberal case for free trade. RAIMONDO TO PHILIPPINES IN MARCH: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is leading a presidential trade and investment mission to the Philippines from March 11 to 12, aimed at enhancing cooperation between American companies and the Philippines' innovation and energy sectors, according to an announcement from the White House.
| 
