TAIWAN, SEMICONDUCTORS ON TAP FOR JAPAN MEETING: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will be in town to meet with Biden on April 16, the Japanese government said Friday. The sides had targeted April 9 for the visit, but said the extra week would give them time to prepare. There's no word from USTR as to whether Tai will speak to Japanese trade officials again, following her call to Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu during her first week in the job. USTR was also mum on whether Tai wants to reopen talks on a full trade agreement with Japan that the Trump administration promised when it reached a mini-deal with Tokyo on agriculture and digital trade in 2019. Semiconductor pact targeted: China is expected to be a chief focus of Biden's meeting with Suga, particularly the security of Taiwan, which Beijing still considers a breakaway province. Human rights in China's Xinjiang province will also be on the agenda, the South China Morning Post reported over the weekend. And Japan and the U.S. aim to strike a pact for semiconductor supply chains as the world economy reels from a shortage of the computer chips, Nikkei reported. TAI BACK ON THE HILL SOON: It hasn't been that long since Tai's confirmation hearing in late February. But she's expected to return to Capitol Hill later this month for annual hearings on the President's Trade Agenda. That will be the first opportunity for House Ways and Means members to interrogate their former staffer on Biden's trade priorities. And it will be the Senate Finance Committee's first chance to question Tai since she's been confirmed and able to give fuller answers than she did in her confirmation hearing. I2C PRESSES TAI ON CHINA: A coalition of digital hardware companies are asking Tai to push the Chinese to open their tightly controlled internet market to firms from the U.S. and other nations. The Internet Infrastructure Association, which includes the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google, wrote in a letter to Tai that in the last five years Chinese government has "implemented or proposed regulations that would significantly limit the ability of non-Chinese companies to participate in this growing market," including forced technology transfer and prohibition of virtual private networks. Tai still hasn't spoken to her Chinese trade counterparts since taking office, but when she does, the I2C urged her to "insist that China provide non-discriminatory treatment for U.S. cloud and associated services suppliers." BRAZIL GETTING RESTLESS INSIDE MERCOSUR: The South American trade bloc known as Mercosur turned 30 years old last month and it's biggest member, Brazil, is increasingly frustrated with rules of the customs union. "In 1991 when the Mercosur treaty was signed, Brazil's participation in international trade was just 1.5 percent," Brazil's Foreign Trade Minister Lucas Ferraz said during a recent discussion hosted by the Council of Americas. "If you go to the statistics and you see the figures now, you'll see that the Brazilian share in global exports is basically the same." One reason for that is Mercosur is a customs union rather than a free trade agreement, so all the countries have the same external tariffs. Unlike NAFTA or its successor, the USMCA, individual members can not negotiate free trade agreements with other countries. Brazil vs. Argentina: The current situation suits Argentina, which is not eager to open its borders to more foreign trade. But Brazil, under the administration of its controversial and polarizing President Jair Bolsonaro, has pushed for reform. "We are not happy with the current rules that we have in Mercosur nowadays, especially when it comes to the obligation to negotiate free trade agreements in bloc," Ferraz said. "We would like to give more flexibility to this rule." Brazil also wants to reduce Mercosur's common external tariff from around to about six or seven percent, from about 11.5 percent currently, "to be aligned with the rest of the world," he said. "But of course, this is a very sensitive issue inside the bloc." Ambitions with the U.S.: The United States and Brazil, during the waning days of the Trump administration, struck a mini trade deal covering customs issues, best regulatory practices and anti-corruption that both sides hailed as a stepping stone to a more comprehensive pact. But Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, where Tai then worked as chief international trade counsel, blasted the package as an undeserved "reward [to] a Brazilian administration that lacks respect for basic human rights, the environment, and its own workers." Loophole: Ferraz reiterated Brazil's desire for a bigger trade agreement with the United States, and noted that Mercosur's rules only prevent it from negotiating individually with other countries to reduce tariffs on agricultural and manufactured goods. "There is no such restriction for instance when it comes to the negotiation of services, investments and government procurement, just to mention a few," Ferraz said. Digital trade: Many U.S. business groups were disappointed the December mini-deal did not contain a digital chapter. Brazil is ready to begin talks on a bilateral pact with the United States and is already a member of the e-commerce talks at the WTO, Ferraz said. | 
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