Ep. 50 – WITA’s Friday Exchange: You Can Check Out Anytime, But Can You Ever Leave? USMCA Review and U.S.-EU Trade Talks
Watch or listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Former Trade Negotiators Discuss This Week’s Tariff Trade Developments.
No one understands the dynamics with key U.S. trading partners better than the people who led these kinds of difficult trade negotiations for the United States. Panelists will update our viewers on the trade policy announcements, what remains undone; and what are expected next steps in these trade negotiations.
In this week’s episode, our trade insiders examine the ongoing USMCA review process, including proposed tariff actions on Canada and Mexico and the debate over how trade deficits should be interpreted in the context of integrated North American supply chains. The panel discusses the possibility of a U.S. withdrawal threat as a negotiating tool, the role of Chinese investment in Canada and Mexico, and what a near-term agreement with Mexico on agriculture might look like ahead of the midterms. The conversation then turns to Europe, tracing how a Section 301 investigation into German pharmaceutical pricing intersects with domestic policy debates in Germany, as well as broader questions about EU industrial policy, technology sovereignty, and the bloc’s evolving approach to China.
Featured Speakers:
Wendy Cutler
Senior Vice President; former Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative
Asia Society Policy Institute
Wendy Cutler is Senior Vice President at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), based in Washington, D.C. In this role, she focuses on leading initiatives that address challenges related to trade, investment, economic security, and innovation, as well as women’s empowerment in Asia.
Cutler joined ASPI following an illustrious career of nearly three decades as a diplomat and negotiator in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), where she also served as Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. During her time at USTR, she worked on a range of bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade negotiations and initiatives, including the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, U.S.-China negotiations, and the WTO Financial Services negotiations.
Cutler has published a series of ASPI papers on the Asian trade landscape and serves as a regular media commentator on trade and investment developments in Asia and the world.
Kellie Meiman Hock
Senior Counselor; former Director of Brazil and the Southern Cone, Office of the United States Trade Representative
McLarty Associates
Kellie Meiman Hock is a Senior Counselor at McLarty Associates and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. A long-time Latin America and trade policy hand, Kellie for over three decades has managed the most challenging issues confronting companies as they seek to manage global operations, tackle market access barriers, and grow internationally. She worked for nearly a decade as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer at the Department of State, serving in Bogota, Colombia, and throughout Brazil in Porto Alegre, São Paulo, and Recife. Her final posting was at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as Director for Brazil and the Southern Cone.
Kellie joined McLarty Associates in 2000, originally founding the firm’s trade and Brazil/Southern Cone practices and eventually becoming Managing Partner. She is now Senior Counselor to the firm and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She also guest lectures at University of Nebraska and McGill University. Kellie is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, chairs the Women’s Foreign Policy Group Leadership Council, and is on the board of the Inter-American Dialogue and the Washington Campus
Daniel Mullaney
Non-Resident Senior Fellow; former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East
Atlantic Council
Daniel Mullaney is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and GeoEconomics Center. Most recently, he served as assistant US trade representative (AUSTR) for Europe and the Middle East in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) from 2010 to 2023. He was chief negotiator for comprehensive trade agreements with the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, as well as trade lead for the US-EU Trade and Technology Council, and was responsible for developing and implementing US trade policy in Europe, Eurasia, Russia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Before assuming the post of AUSTR, he served as senior trade representative in the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, where he was the principal voice for US trade policy in interactions with the EU institutions and EU member state governments, the public, and the international press. Prior to that posting, Mullaney was in USTR’s Office of General Counsel for seven years, where he represented the United States in dispute settlement proceedings at the World Trade Organization and led negotiations and acted as legal counsel for free trade and other agreements. Before joining USTR, Mullaney was in private practice for nearly twenty years, specializing in international trade law and litigation; when he entered public service, he was a partner at the law firm of Dorsey and Whitney.
Mullaney is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a BA from Amherst College, and a joint law/foreign service JD/MSFS degree from Georgetown University.
Joe Damond
Non-resident Senior Associate; former Deputy Assistant USTR for Asia
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Southeast Asia Program
Joe Damond Trade and Health Policy Consultant
Joe Damond’s career spans more than 40 years in both the government and private sectors in Washington. He served 16 years as a trade official at the Department of Commerce and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, holding a diverse set of responsibilities across that time.
Most notably, Damond spent seven years as Deputy Assistant United States Trade Representative for Asia and the Pacific, where he was responsible for executing U.S. trade policy with Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. He served as chief negotiator of bilateral trade agreements with Laos and Cambodia, as well as the historic Bilateral Trade Agreement with Vietnam, concluded in 2000, and also chaired the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Committee on Trade and Investment.
Damond then spent more than 20 years in the private sector, holding senior positions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries focused on international trade, health policy, and global government affairs, representing the sector during numerous bilateral and global trade agreements. For the past four years, he has worked as a consultant on healthcare and trade policy issues, representing both private sector and government clients with a focus on Asia and Europe.
Damond is the author of Give Trade a Chance: The Negotiation of the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement.
