Robert Lighthizer, the top White House trade negotiator, will speak to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
Photo: kevin dietsch/pool/ShutterstockWASHINGTON—Congress will scrutinize the Trump administration’s aggressive international trade initiatives on Wednesday as the top U.S. trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, appears before House and Senate committees.
The administration completed a preliminary trade deal with China in January after a bruising trade war that saddled U.S. importers with tariffs on most Chinese imports and temporarily dried up the Chinese export market for U.S. farmers. Mr. Trump has said the pact will help level the playing field between the two countries. Mr. Lighthizer also negotiated a new trade accord with Mexico and Canada that was approved by Congress earlier this year.
Mr. Lighthizer’s testimony will give lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee an opportunity to question how those deals are playing out, as well as the White House’s assessments of its economic relationship with other trading partners, including the European Union and the United Kingdom.
While the president’s trade agenda has been sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic, the administration still faces a range of unresolved trade issues.
President Trump signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement at the White House in January.
Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg NewsChina is far behind on its targeted purchases of U.S. goods under the trade pact, although it is nonetheless a relative bright spot as the world economy withers from the coronavirus pandemic. U.S.-China ties have been further complicated by debate over China’s culpability as the originating country for the coronavirus, as well as Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s autonomy.
The U.S. also retains tariffs on about $360 billion worth of imports from China that have been a sore spot for the American importers who foot the bill.
U.S. trade tensions remain elevated with the EU. While the administration has struck deals with Mexico, Canada, Japan and China, years of talks with Brussels have gone nowhere.
The U.S. has imposed tariffs on European imports as part of a long-running dispute over subsidies for aircraft manufacturers Boeing Co. and Airbus SE. The American side won a key ruling at the World Trade Organization last year that allowed the U.S. to put tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European goods. Europe is expected to win a parallel case later this year, and could respond with tariffs of its own if no agreement is forged.
The U.S.-China trade war temporarily stymied the Chinese export market for U.S. farmers.
Photo: andrew caballero-reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesEarlier this month, Mr. Lighthizer’s office launched formal investigations against nine countries, as well as the EU as a bloc, because of taxes that fall heavily on American tech companies. The investigations are the precursor to tariffs; the administration previously used the same strategy to threaten France with tariffs on $2.4 billion of goods.
The U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement is set to enter into effect on July 1, which will set off a scramble as companies hurry into compliance.
Another major item on the trade agenda is a trade deal being negotiated between the U.S. and the U.K. now that the U.K. has left the EU. The two sides have laid out an aggressive timeline of agreeing to something this year.
Write to Josh Zumbrun at Josh.Zumbrun@wsj.com
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