Most Favoured Nation: Foreign Trade Barriers Report [Bonus Edition]
The best report in the world
This is a bonus edition of Most Favoured Nation dedicated to those who love USTR’s National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers as much as I do.
As long-time MFN fans will know, every year USTR publishes a report listing all of the things its hates about other countries. Well, not quite, but pretty close. The NTE report on foreign trade barriers lists the numerous challenges American firms face when trying to sell stuff internationally. (Obviously, it says nothing about American barriers to trade, alas.)
Anyhow, the 2023 version has been published, so here are a few observations:
Digital protectionism a growing concern
Historically the NTE report, at least in respect of Europe, has been a long list of complaints about the EU’s sanitary and phytosanitary rules – for example, discriminatory EU Fumigation Requirements for Hardwood Lumber and Logs (no idea …). Those complaints haven’t gone away, but concerns about digital protectionism have gained greater prominence in recent years.
For example, the US argues that both the EU Cybersecurity Certification Scheme for Cloud Services (EUCS) and France’s SecNumCloud requirements result in de-facto data localisation requirements and breaches of the EU’s obligations under the WTO government procurement agreement (GPA):
The US is also generally sad that the EU is regulating emerging technology more quickly than the US. In particular, it is worried about the EU approach to regulating AI, and also that EU requirements for conformity assessment certification to be carried out within the European Economic Area (for the most part) unnecessarily push up costs for non-EU producers.
The end of an era
Every year I check to make sure my favourite ever US complaint – that it’s not fair that the EU requires whisky to be aged in a barrel for at least three years if it is to be called whisky b’cos the US has innovative barrels – is still included in the NTE report.
Here it is in 2022:
But in 2023 … nothing:
How mysterious! Did the US stop caring? Did the EU change its rules? Tune into a future MFN to find out more …
We’ll be watching
I have a feeling that now that CBAM is on the list, it will be staying there for quite a long time …
Anyhow, read the report — it’s useful.
See you later this week,
Sam