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Trade took center stage in Washington D.C Wednesday. U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai pushed back on Republican claims that new trade deals are on the back burner in the Biden Administration. Challenged by top Finance Republican Idaho’s Mike Crapo that the Administration has put trade deals with the U.K. and Kenya on the back Burner, Tai stated.

“It should be clear today that trade is not on the back burner. For your question, specifically on the UK and Kenya, I think it was on my first two weeks on the job, that I had conversations with my counterparts in both countries."

But Tai described only a review of how those talks can meet Biden's "Build Back Better" goals, after first getting through the pandemic, while not answering if the White House would seek to extend ‘fast track’ power to speed a U.K. deal through Congress. And when it came to the question of whether to continue the roughly $370 billion in tariffs on China imposed by the Trump Administration.

“We are (setting up a new exclusion process) the top to bottom review on China, at USTR, and the tariffs and the exclusion process will be a critical component of that review, through which we will be soliciting robust feedback from the public, from Congress.”

When it came to the subject of USMCA, Tai said she will enforce the new standards, follow through on the United States’ commitments and use the agreement to ensure that Canada and Mexico do as well. She added that includes dealing with Mexico’s bans or those pending on GMO corn and glyphosate. Tai also announced the U.S. has triggered a USMCA review by Mexico of a crackdown on labor organizing at a GM factory. 

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