So it's good to be here, as always.
Listening to the intro, I was like, Is she talking about me?
So I have some remarks
and I know it's after lunch, so I'll try and
do my best to be to keep your attention.
My remarks start off saying, Thank you.
It's a pleasure to be here.
But really it's exciting to be here.
That's my point of view.
We're finally really talking about trade and climate and energy all at once.
And so I really applaud CBP and its focus on this.
The time.
The time is now.
So I'd like to thank Customs and Border Protection for convening this event
and the Patent and Trademark Office for providing this venue.
As Deputy USTR, I'm responsible for environment.
It's my job to support and advance the Biden-Harris
administration's trade and environment priorities.
In fact, as mentioned, I've spent a better part of my career in D.C.
focused on the intersection of trade and environment and climate
and renewable energy and the jobs the jobs they support.
Over time, one trend
I've witnessed is the growing role of environmental stewardship
and durable supply chains in our trade policies and priorities.
I'll note that Ambassador Tai's very first speech
as the USTR outlined a vision for leveraging trade policy
to protect the environment and tackle the climate crisis.
That is why I'm so happy to be her deputy and support this work.
The Biden-Harris administration is taking
a whole of government approach to environmental protection.
That commitment bless you.
That commitment is shown in USTR’s
work to prioritize and advance trade policies
that support our environment and our climate change goals.
USTR maintains that leadership
seeking to ensure our international trade
and environmental policies are mutually supportive.
Trade done right. And I'll say it again.
Trade done right has the potential to improve
social, economic and sustainable outcomes.
Trade is an environmental issue and environment is a trade issue.
We cannot have a healthy and robust economy
without a healthy environment in which workers live.
This administration's commitment to addressing
environment and climate changes through trade tools is supported
by a number of outcomes with trading partners around the world.
For example,
last year we demonstrated U.S.
leadership by working together with other World Trade
Organization members to achieve a groundbreaking agreement
that decades long WTO fisheries subsidies, negotiation.
This included years of work with Congress on a bipartisan basis
and our stakeholders,
and that partnership will endure as we implement this agreement.
We are proud to be among the first WTO members to accept
the WTO agreement on fisheries subsidies, which is the first ever multilateral
trade agreement with environmental sustainability at its core.
This agreement will help support the livelihood of fishers
and workers in the U.S. and globally.
It will contribute to the sustainability of fish stocks worldwide.
Or, as I like to say,
preserving marine wealth.
It will also prohibit subsidies to those engaged in illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing,
subsidies for fishing overfished stocks, and subsidies
for fishing on the unrelated, unregulated high seas.
This agreement was a breakthrough after more than two decades of negotiations.
But it is not the last step.
We will continue to work with our partners at the WTO
to seek additional ambitious disciplines on harmful subsidies
to protect our oceans, protect our marine wealth, and protect
our fisheries resources more broadly.
At the WTO and other fora, such as APAC and OECD,
and in our bilateral and regional engagements, the U.S.
is providing leadership in areas such as the circular economy.
We are championing ways to extend the life of goods and materials
through re-use, repair, remanufacturing
and recycling throughout our economy.
This keeps products in use longer,
decreases demand for virgin resources, and lowers
the overall environmental impact and carbon footprint of products.
USTR is focused
on the role that trade and trade facilitation,
important to our friends and customs, plays in enabling
remanufacturing activities as a key element of a more circular economy,
which is likely top of mind to many of you here.
For example, we recently hosted a remanufacturing
focused event as part of the WTO Trade and Environment Week,
showcasing the role that trade can play to enable remanufacturing.
We know there is more to do and we'll continue to work with our trading partners
and our federal government partners and stakeholders on this important topic.
Addressing the climate crisis and advancing sustainable trade policies
requires a multifaceted approach
with our trading partners to tackle these challenges.
We work together with trading partners to capitalize on opportunities
to decarbonize our global economy, including through bilateral negotiations.
For example,
through the negotiations for what we call a global steel,
a global arrangement on sustainable steel and aluminum, the U.S.
and the EU are aiming to reach an agreement to address both carbon
intensity as well as global steel and aluminum excess capacity.
In these two energy intensive areas.
In fact, these two concepts are closely linked.
Excess capacity, by its very nature leads to excess emissions
because it enables excess production of steel and aluminum,
which in turn takes more energy and more emissions to produce.
From the beginning, we, the U.S., have been clear
that we see the potential for a new trade paradigm to address fundamental issues,
carbon intensity and on market excess capacity
to address the serious threat that market distortions
pose to workers, producers and our climate.
USTR is working
with government counterparts, industry and stakeholders
to develop an innovative approach to trade in these sectors and will incentivize
industrial decarbonization through a market based approach.
We are also advancing a green trade agenda
in the Indo-Pacific region.
President Biden launched the Indo-Pacific economic framework, or what we refer to
as IPEC or excuse me, IPEF in May of 2022
and negotiations are have been underway.
IPEF is a trade agreement with more than a dozen partners in the region
that will advance commitments for environmental protection
and sustainability
in the IPEF trade pillar.
That's trade jargon.
We use the word pillars in the IPEF trade pillar negotiations.
We are pursuing an ambitious set of environmental provisions
containing commitments and initiatives that will respond
to our common sustainability challenges, including climate change.
We are building on previous trade agreements
and seeking to break new ground, such as on issues like climate and trade.
Resource efficient and circular economies.
Renewable energy and clean energy technology and sustainable finance.
We are
working to create enabling environments
in our trading partners economies to tackle these issues head on.
We expect the commitments in these areas will have both direct
and indirect impacts on climate change and environmental protection.
But we are not focused only on new trade agreements and new outcomes.
As my colleagues at CBP know well,
enforcing the commitments of our existing trade agreements is essential.
It's paramount.
It lends credibility because when we're credible,
we're incredible
to ensure our environment is protected in our supply.
Chains are resilient and sustainable.
The recently negotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, USMCA,
which was negotiated in the past on a bipartisan, bicameral basis,
included groundbreaking environmental provisions.
And I want to just emphasize the bipartisan, bicameral
I was in the Senate at the time
managing this bill.
We got 89 votes, and it's pretty hard to
when you have 89 votes in the Senate, something must be going right.
And we got 89 votes for the USMCA and 90% of the votes
in the House voted for us.
That's how important it is and how things have changed
a lot over the last 20 years.
You know, 25 years ago, the conversation of our environment
as part of a trade agreement was a bit controversial for some.
Today, it's accepted and understood.
So the environment chapter
in the USMCA brought environment into the core provisions
of the trade agreement and made them enforceable,
just like the commercial provisions are enforceable.
USTR is actively monitoring Canada
and Mexico's implementation of that chapter.
For example, in 2022, we requested
the first ever environment consultations with the government of Mexico.
These consultations
related on the protection of critically endangered
species like the vaquita and the totoaba and illegal fishing.
Since the initiation of these consultations,
we've been working with Mexico to develop a plan of action.
We were just Ambassador Ty and I were just in Cancun
meeting with our colleagues on USMCA
and on on this topic.
The plan that we have put forward will enhance Mexico's
enforcement of its fisheries related environmental laws
and implementation of its USMCA environmental commitments.
So we're not imposing
new laws on Mexico.
We're trying to help Mexico enforce its own laws.
We are hopeful that Mexico will soon agree to a plan,
given the urgent nature of the issue at stake.
If you don't know about the Vaquita issue,
you can Google it and see that it's a very dire situation.
Additionally, our ongoing work with Vietnam,
including through implementation of the innovative bilateral U.S.
Vietnam timber agreement, this agreement is another example
of the way in which we have sought to use trade tools
to cooperate with trading partners to address environmental concerns,
including combating illegal deforestation.
Illegally harvested timber not only harms the environment
and depletes natural resources, but also disadvantages
workers and businesses who use lawful
and sustainable means to make their goods.
Having worked for members of Congress in the Pacific Northwest, where, you know,
timber is a very important issue and the mills really matter.
Our mills should not have to compete with stalwart with stolen timber
or process wood, um, that was illegally harvested over overseas.
It's just an unfair trade issue, but it's also bad for the environment.
Um, so
USTR, with respect to Vietnam, worked to secure an agreement that addresses U.S.
concerns and the Vietnam timber issue.
We started what was called is called a Section 3.1 investigation.
It was the first real one investigation to address environmental concerns.
And the timber agreement will help keep illegally harvested
or traded timber out of the supply chain and protect the environment.
Our natural resources and our jobs.
We achieved a number of important commitments,
including customs inspections and clearance verification, enforcement
measures and cooperation, which is key between the U.S.
and Vietnam to combat the harvest and trade of illegal timber.
This is another example of the administration's commitment
to taking action to address serious environmental concern
using our trade tools.
These actions just represent
some of the work we are doing at USTR.
We could not do this work without our interagency partners,
including CBP and stakeholders and industry partners
who are also working to combat the climate crisis,
protect the environment and create secure,
durable and green supply chains.
As Ambassador Ty says, our collective climate
and environmental challenges require a collective solution.
I know everyone in this room
is working to advance solutions
to green our supply chains and protect our environment.
And before I conclude,
when I meet with my counterparts, whether it's in the Western Hemisphere
or it's Europe or it's the Middle East, and I talk about environment,
one of the things I say is that we share oceans,
we share seas, we share marine wealth, and we share the air.
And so working on this issue and using every measure we can
in my part on trade is imperative.
So I want to thank you again for the chance to share our ongoing work
at USTR in this area, and I look forward to our partnership.
Thank you.