USTR STILL FREEZING OUT BIDEN STAFF: Nine days to the inauguration, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer still has not assured global trading partners he will not try to derail the early work of the incoming administration. Sources close to the transition say USTR is still preventing career staff from meeting with the Biden transition team, a freeze-out that has been going on since the November election. USTR mum: Lighthizer and his public relations team have repeatedly refused to comment on the transition or even acknowledge Biden's victory, even after supporters of the Trump administration stormed the Capitol on the false grounds that he won the election. Lighthizer did put out a two-sentence statement following the insurrection, saying "Americans should condemn the violence we saw at our Capitol today," which he called "inconsistent with our democracy and our most cherished values." But the USTR staff refused to go any further, even after Trump went on TV to say he will relinquish his office on Jan. 20. Smooth handoff threatened: Preventing meetings and information sharing between USTR staff and the Biden transition could mean gaps and delays in policy implementation, particularly regarding ongoing issues like the Vietnam currency probe or recently delayed tariffs on French goods. The Biden team is also staying quiet about the impasse, even as the inauguration approaches, hopeful that conditions will soon improve. And Democratic trade leaders on the Hill, while saying they hoped the transition would be smooth, also declined to call out Lighthizer and his team, instead deferring to the transition. RAIMONDO PLAYS UP TRADE EXPERIENCE AT UNVEILING: Amid the drama at USTR, Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, Biden's pick for Commerce secretary, introduced herself as a member of Biden's Cabinet who has personal experience with international trade and its effects on U.S. workers. At an event unveiling economic nominees, Raimondo recounted how her father lost his 28-year factory job in Providence when watchmaker Bulova packed up and moved operations to China. She promised as Commerce secretary that she would "come together with working families and business" to help "empower entrepreneurs" and "spur good paying jobs." Progressives opposed: Regardless of her backstory, progressives and unions opposed Raimondo when she was being vetted for higher profile roles leading Treasury or HHS, over her slashing of pension payments in Rhode Island. Biden says unions at table for trade: But Biden offered labor an olive branch during the Cabinet event, promising that unions would be at the table for "every decision we make" in trade policy. And he nominated a longtime union leader for Labor secretary in Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who Biden said would "encourage the formation of unions." He added that he considered Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for the role, but that he and the runner-up from the Democratic primary agreed that a 50-50 partisan split in the Senate was too narrow to risk in a special election. CEOS URGE TRUMP TO PASS ON VIETNAM TARIFFS: More than 200 CEOs of firms and trade associations urged the White House on Friday not to impose tariffs on products from Vietnam before Biden takes over on Jan. 20. USTR has two investigations open that could result in new duties, on Hanoi's currency practices and allegations of illegal lumber exports. Tech, furniture, clothing among chief concerns: The coalition of U.S. firms said they are particularly concerned in potential tariffs on apparel, furniture and technology components from Vietnam. Those sectors already face "some of the highest duties the U.S. government charges," they wrote , and imposing new tariffs could mean that "more than half of all apparel and footwear and more than three quarters of all accessories sold in the U.S. would be hit with cumulative tariffs as high as 25-50 percent." A key China alternative: The companies also said many of them had shifted their sourcing to Vietnam as a "direct result" of Trump's tariffs on China and warnings from the federal government to diversify their supply chains. "Placing tariffs on imports from Vietnam would punish those companies who made the sourcing shift as the administration had asked," wrote the companies, which include major apparel brands like Nike, Patagonia and Under Armour. Talks with Hanoi give hope: The prospects for a negotiated solution that could avoid tariffs appeared to increase last week when the sides held phone conversations aimed at avoiding tariffs. According to state media, Vietnam's Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh told Lighthizer that Hanoi's monetary policy is meant to control inflation, not unfairly disadvantage its trading partners, and that timber imports are under strict management. USTR also gave U.S. importers some hope last week when it deferred new tariffs on France in retaliation for its digital services tax, rather than imposing them shortly before leaving office. BRITISH MPs: KEEP TECH LIABILITY LANGUAGE OUT OF U.S. TRADE DEAL: Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom are stepping up their efforts to keep language mirroring Section 230, the tech industry's legal shield, out of U.K.-U.S. trade negotiations. In a letter Friday to International Trade Secretary Liz Truss , three conservative MPs and several advocates wrote that including such provisions "would have a chilling effect on data protection and online harms regulation," according to a copy shared with POLITICO's Morning Tech team. The letter, led by MP Damian Collins, urges Truss to make an "explicit commitment" to keep it out of any future pact. Pressure from both sides of the Atlantic: The missive, Collins' office said, was "inspired" by a separate letter a bipartisan group of U.S. senators sent to Lighthizer in December urging him to keep Section 230-like provisions out of the U.K. deal. "As legislators proceed to review and examine the issues surrounding internet platform liability, it is unnecessary — and inappropriate — to tie their hands by making Section 230-style immunity an international obligation of our respective countries," wrote Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). SOLAR SECTOR REACTS TO FORCED LABOR INVESTIGATION: The U.S. solar industry is rushing to distance itself from allegations of widespread forced labor used by major Chinese panel suppliers in the Xinjiang region, brought to light in a New York Times investigation last week. The Solar Energy Industries Association said the report is "deeply troubling" and the "first allegation" it has seen "directly linking the solar industry to abhorrent forced labor practices," which have been widely publicized in agriculture, apparel and footwear. SEIA said it was "disgusted by these practices" and that "since the fall," it has been "proactively telling all solar companies operating in the Xinjiang region to immediately move their supply chains." Huge source of panel material: The Chinese Communist Party has reportedly placed more than a million ethnic Uighur Mulsims in internment and reeducation camps in Xinjiang. The region is responsible for about 40 percent of the global production of polysilicone, a key component in solar panels, the Times reported. Wind energy also implicated in Xinjiang: The solar sector report comes on the heels of a report from the South China Morning Post that wind energy towers destined for a Texas wind farm were produced by a supplier with ties to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps., whose cotton products are subject to a U.S. ban for widespread forced labor violations. XPCC is just one of dozens of companies in Xinjiang subject to import bans, and the House has already passed a broader bill that would prevent U.S. firms from importing any goods from Xinjiang unless they can prove they are not produced with forced labor. The Senate, however, has so far refused to take it up after a lobbying campaign from apparel and technology companies. NRF SAYS 2020 US IMPORTS LIKELY SET RECORD: Global pandemic and trade wars aside, the National Retail Federation said U.S. imports likely set a record for volume last year, fueled by a shift in consumer spending brought on by Covid-19 restrictions. NRF's Global Port Tracker said U.S. ports handled a record 2.11 million shipping containers in November, on top of a record "peak season" between July and October, when 8.3 million units entered America. December numbers are still being tabulated, but if NRF's estimates are correct, 2020 will have seen 21.9 million containers enter U.S. ports, breaking the 2018 record of 21.8 million. Though the U.S. economy was hit hard by the pandemic, wealthy consumers around the globe have also shifted some of their spending from services and experiences to goods, helping fuel a global surge in trade. BLACK, LATINO WORKERS MOST HURT BY US TRADE POLICY, REPORT SAYS: Amid the surge in U.S. imports, liberal watchdog group Public Citizen on Friday published a reminder of the consequences of global trade. The "Trade Discrimination" report says Black and Latino workers have borne the brunt of offshoring, saying they are disroportionately represented in 9 out of 10 manufacturing sectors that have shipped the most jobs overseas, like furniture, paper, chemicals and metals. "Black workers have lost nearly half a million manufacturing jobs (494,000) during the NAFTA-WTO era," the report says, while Latinos lost 123,000 jobs in the decline of the U.S. appliance and equipment industries, and 182,700 jobs from textiles, apparel and leather manufacturing. And those workers are also overrepresented in many of the service sector jobs that have been sent overseas, it adds, like call center and customer service jobs. CLARIFICATION: Friday's newsletter misstated the Information Technology Industry Council's position on USTR's decision to delay the use of tariffs against France in the digital service tax dispute. While ITI does not specifically endorse the use of tariffs, it does believe "the U.S. government should clearly specify a course of action to appropriately resolve the issues" it has identified about the taxes imposed by France and other countries. | 
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