 Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, you're very, very welcome indeed to this IEA webinar session. And we're absolutely delighted to be joined today by such a distinguished speaker in Ambassador Catherine Tai, the US Trade Representative and indeed the second member of President Biden's cabinet to speak at the IEA in recent weeks. We had an honor to have Janet Yellen with us in November, but my name is Michael Collins and I am the Director General of the Institute, the IEA and we are Ireland's leading international and European Affairs think tank. And we've been in existence now for more than 30 years, bringing expert insight through our speaker programs and dedicated research to Irish to European and deed to a more recently at least a global audience. By bringing distinguished speakers such as Ambassador Tai to address our members, we are able to fulfill our mission of sharing ideas and shaping policy. Before we begin this afternoon, this afternoon's in conversation session with the ambassador, let me briefly run through our running order and the format of the event. Ambassador Tai is going to deliver a brief opening remarks of about five minutes or so. And then I would begin with a few questions and we will then turn to you or audience for your questions and please feel free to submit these questions using zooms q and a function, which you should see at the bottom of your screen. And if you are submitting a question and please if you are doing so please keep the questions succinct brief, you include your name and your affiliation or organization applicable. We will finish this webinar sharply at 345pm Irish time, so I would encourage you to get your questions in early if you have questions to ask. I know that a number of journalists are joining us this afternoon so a reminder that the full session, the initial conversation portion and the q&a will take place on the record. And you can join the discussion also on Twitter, using the handle at. So now let me just formally introduce Ambassador Catherine Tai, who was sworn in as the 19th US trade representative on the 18th of March, just after St. Patrick's Day 2021. As a member of the President's Cabinet, Ambassador Tai is the principal trade advisor, negotiator and spokesperson on US trade policy, and indeed is right at the epicenter of international trade issues. Her unanimous confirmation by Congress, Ambassador Tai spent most of her career in public service focusing on international economic diplomacy, monitoring and enforcement, serving as chief trade council and trade subcommittee staff director for the House Ways and Means Committee in the United States Congress, which of course is shared by our good friend and chairman of the Friends of Ireland in Congress, Congressman Richie Neal, who spoke to us also last year, last May indeed on the occasion of our 30th anniversary. Ambassador Tai holds a degree in history from Yale University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. So with that, Ambassador Tai, you're very, very welcome to the idea. It's a pleasure to welcome you. The floor is yours. Thank you so much, Ambassador Collins for that kind introduction. And I also want to thank IIEA for hosting me today. It's a real honor to be here with you and your audience. I'm looking forward to engaging in a thoughtful discussion with you and all of you who are tuning in today on what the future of US transatlantic trade will and should bring in 2022 and beyond. But I want to begin by highlighting some of our accomplishments over the last year, and how we can build on these successes this year. When President Biden took office, he pledged to rebuild our alliances with Europe and our partners around the world. Now one year almost into our administration and 10 months since I was sworn in as United States trade representative. I believe we have made significant progress in fulfilling the president's pledge, particularly with our European allies. Last summer, we reached interim agreements with the EU and the UK to resolve the 17 year long Boeing Airbus disputes. By thinking creatively, working cooperatively, we were able to put our long standing differences aside and reach an agreement that will ensure the long term viability of the American and European aerospace sectors. Protect thousands of jobs on both sides of the Atlantic from duties and the effects of non-market financing. In resolving this disagreement, the United States and European Union can now turn our attention to addressing harmful non-market practices in the sector from countries like China that distort the aerospace market and create a truly uneven playing field for the rest of the world. And off of that momentum, we have intensified talks with the EU on steel and aluminum. And in October, we announced a historic arrangement with the EU that will allow the resumption of duty free European steel and aluminum into the United States. That has happened as of January 1, the EU suspended its tariffs on American steel and aluminum and its retaliatory tariffs on other American products. This deal is also a significant win on a top priority the United States and the EU share fighting climate change. As part of the resolution, the US and the EU have committed to negotiate the first ever carbon based arrangement on steel and aluminum trade and create greater incentives for reducing carbon intensity across modes of production of steel and aluminum that are produced by American and European companies. This is an example of what we have been pursuing, which is using trade to leverage a race to the top, as opposed to a race to the bottom. In October, we further harnessed this momentum and reached agreements with four European trading partners on digital services taxes that have unfairly targeted US companies. France, Italy and Spain have agreed to remove their digital services taxes upon implementation of pillar one of the OECD international tax agreement, which will help end the race to the bottom over multinational corporate taxation. Additionally, our administration is delighted to have Ireland support for this agreement and we look forward to working with you to implement it in the coming months. In resolving all of these trade disputes in our first year, no less, the Biden Harris administration is showing what we can accomplish when we work with our allies in a collaborative and creative manner. Taken together these agreements with our transatlantic trading partners have reopened markets and removed or averted the imposition of over $20 billion in tariffs, without requiring us to compromise our principles. However, even as we acknowledge our successes and addressing long standing challenges in our trade relationship with the EU, we must also look to the future. And that is why we have together established the US EU Trade and Technology Council, what we are calling the TTC is a forum for us to tackle important trade and technological issues that transcend borders, including the non market trade and trade distortive practices of certain countries that threaten us and European competitiveness and technological leadership. We held the inaugural meeting last fall in Pittsburgh and I anticipate the TTC will meet again somewhere in Europe later this year. Going forward, the Biden Harris administration will use the TTC to further the US EU cooperation on technology and innovation to advance our shared democratic values and to protect fundamental and worker rights. We have also renewed our trilateral partnership with the EU and Japan to address the global challenges posed by non market policies and practices in 2022. I am looking forward to continuing to renew our commitment to these trilateral discussions in the EU. We have a partner that shares our domestic and our democratic values and our commitment to developing concrete outcomes that benefit all of us. Taken together, this work leaves me more optimistic than ever about the outlook for global trade, and I'm excited to see what we accomplish together in this new year. With that, I will turn the program back to you Ambassador Collins as we begin the next question and answer session. Thank you so much. Thank you Ambassador and thank you for that presentation and just talking about the trade and the TTC, which met as you say in Pittsburgh in September. Is this and it's got a very, very full agenda I was reading down through it overnight it's got a very full agenda indeed. Is this a substitute or a prelude for a wider or an agreement for example between the EU, the EU and the US trade agreement. I remember very vividly being in the Congress in 2013 when President President Obama initiated tea tips are the start of negotiations which course didn't didn't materialize the end of the day as in terms of outcome. So is the TTC a prelude to a wider agreement with the European Union or what is the state of our one of the prospects for an agreement trade agreement between the European Union and the US. Well, thank you very much for that question. I think that for those of us have been in this business a long time. We've tracked the evolution of trade policy, not just from our own perspectives but also in terms of the, the global trajectory and the global practice for trade policy. You know, I don't think of the TTC as either a substitute or a prelude I think, really, what's interesting as you asked this question is we've really been focused here at USTR on the TTC. For, for the sake of the TTC itself and I'll say a little bit more about what I mean, I think that you know the T tip exercise dates back to the 2014 1516 era. So I can't believe we've turned the corner on on the years again it's now 2022. And I think that in the interim, a lot of very important developments have happened. I think that what I really am encouraged by an enthusiastic about in the TTC is its responsiveness to the challenges and the opportunities that we are really facing today. I think that it's really a timely partnership in taking on, certainly in the trade lane, the, the issues that crop up with the digitalization of the digital transformation of our economies and our global economy. The challenges in technology leadership, and also looking at critical issues related to the resiliency of our supply change, which is, which is really about the health of the global economy and our ability to bounce back from, if not, if unforeseen, if not, unpredicted crises like the COVID pandemic. I think that there is a lot of new inputs that governments are taking in, and especially in the international economic policy lane to push us to innovate. What trade policy means and what the opportunities are and working with our partners in particular the ones with whom we are so well aligned historically, culturally, politically and economically to take advantage of the opportunities we have to to fortify ourselves in in the transition that we face, whether it's from other economies in the world or from changing circumstances, including climate. So, in that sense, then, you know, a formal trade agreement between the European Union and the United States is not immediately in prospect then. I never say never I never want to foreclose opportunities. I am always about generating options to allow for optimization of where we may take things in the future but with respect to the TTC as you've noted, the agenda is very, very full. And, you know, I, I feel very strongly that as we've designed it together between the US and the EU, that it is actually quite a comprehensive approach to the most pressing issues that are facing us together today. Okay, let me just come to a question that that's coming already from Simon Lester from the World Trade Law, I think it is. His question is, can you give us an update on any recent steps the US TRs office has taken to enforce the US China phase one trade deal. Well, I know Simon well by reputation and I have been a consumer of his, his world trade law net database and network, since I was a junior trade lawyer so hello to Simon. You know, I really want to respect the forum here today focusing on Ireland and European affairs. But let me take this opportunity to talk a little bit about China through the lens of US EU cooperation. And I think that in my opening remarks and also in the way that we are approaching the TTC on both sides of the Atlantic, and it we are very much focused on the increasing challenges, just just the scale of the challenges but also the increasing complexity of the challenges that are in continuing to compete with China on the global economic stage, and whether it is through TTC, our new posture on large civil aircraft steel and aluminum. We have really invested in a partnership with the EU to take on the challenges together and to really amplify our shared interests in maintaining our competitiveness in an increasingly challenging and complex world. Very good. I'm just on the coming back to to more specifically to Europe I suppose and our neighbors of course our next door neighbor here the United Kingdom of course has a has an independent channel of engagement with the US TR. We've spoken about the prospects for the Euro EU wide engagement and the actuality of EU wide engagement with the United States on trade issues. How do you see the prospects and obviously for the UK it's something of a priority. How do you see the prospects for a US UK trade agreement and and when do you think such an agreement might materialize if there is a prospect of one happening. Ambassador Collins, thank you for that balanced question and taking it from the EU side and then and now from the UK side I see the logic and how you're approaching these questions, and I appreciate it deeply. And, you know, I think that on on this. We are approaching our conversations with the with the UK consistent with the overall approach that we're taking as an administration, which is a focus on building back better. And that is very much in response to the need that we have globally economically to. And first of all, to continue to the fight against the pandemic to take the opportunity to in crisis to rebuild and to rebuild along lines that correct for aspects of our economic systems that could use shoring up. And you'll see in a lot of the activities of the Biden Harris administration over the course of 2021 this focus on investment investment in infrastructure, for instance, investment in the US economic structures, investment in our relationships and with respect to the US and the UK, we are approaching our trade relationship consistent with the way that we are approaching everyone which is, you know, how can we enhance our connectivity and ensure that it is supportive of and reinforcing and of building back better both at home and also building back better on on an international basis. So, that's, that's my first point. And, you know, I think that we also are seeing a lot of the fruits of our efforts in my engagements with Secretary Trevelyan, and foreign secretary trust who had been my counterpart earlier in the year and we've carried a consistent message that from our side, the way we talk about it is our approach to trade will be a worker centered one. And that is to really focus on putting the, the human worker community impacts of trade into the center of our decision making. And I think that whether it is with the UK or with the EU, certainly with other partners as well. We are getting a very, very good reception in terms of orienting ourselves to how we can harness the power of trade policies and trade and economic cooperation to make it a force for good in our economy and in the world economy. So, with respect to the US UK trade agreement. You know, again, I think that our approach continues to be focused on building back better and the way we talk about it worker centrism, and responding to the challenges and needs of today, including cooperating on developing tools and strategies to ensure that our economies remain competitive. So, I'd say that, you know, at the moment, it's, it's our work with the UK is running in parallel with the work that we are doing with the EU and again, we will see where all of this goes. I continue every day when I wake up, and you know read the papers and turn on the news to be amazed by the sense of fluidity in the global economy and the degree to which we are all still adapting to, you know, maintaining momentum in terms of recovery. And I think that, you know, where we are right now affords us many, many opportunities and will continue to do so in innovating the way that we approach each other for for optimizing our opportunities. Yeah, just forgive me. Just forgive me just for going a little bit local for a second. There's a huge amount of interest here obviously in the linkage if any, which the United States may see between the, the, the Northern Ireland protocol which I'm sure you're familiar with. I think that's the direction of the 1998 Good Friday agreement, and whether these might be a factor in agreeing a US UK trade agreement or indeed easing the steel and aluminium tariffs on the UK and members of Congress have frequently spoken or occasionally at least spoken on on a possible linkage there. Would you like to just speak to that for a little bit of whether there is an expectation on the US side that in moving forward on the trade front that they, there would be an expectation that they will fulfill their obligations under the under the Northern Ireland protocol. I know that this is a matter of considerable interest and I'm glad that you're asking this question. Let me say, let me begin by reiterating that President Biden, the US Congress, and I care very deeply about supporting and preserving the Good Friday agreement that has brought peace to Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland. I understand that the UK and the EU are continuing in critical discussions over implementation of the Irish protocol. And we are encouraging here on our side of the Atlantic, both the UK and the EU to find a solution that is durable, and that maintains peace in Northern Ireland. I would expect that, you know, on our side, given the deep levels of interest that are here and the sense of investment in the legacy of the Good Friday agreement that what happens in these engagements between the UK and the EU will will always be on the radar and it will be part of our, our awareness, both the UK and the EU are very, very important strategic and economic partners of the United States, and it will continue to be something I think that we will, we will be tracking with but let me just reinforce our position in encouraging both sides, the UK and the EU to work in good faith and as tirelessly as I know that people have been to find that solution that will be durable and peaceful. And on the steel and aluminum issues, you know, let me say on that we, we continue to be grounded in those efforts on the big picture, which is where the global international economic pressures are coming from, and we will continue to look for opportunities to be aligning ourselves with our closest partners on this to take on the challenge together, rather than alone. Okay, well, I might just jump around a little bit here if I may, Ambassador questions that have come in, one here from Michael McCarthy Flynn who's the head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam Ireland. He asks, what arguments would Ambassador Tye deploy to try to persuade Ireland and the EU to support the trips waiver, the trips waiver at the WTO. Well, that's an important question and one that we have been focused on for much of 2021, and continue to be focused on here. Let me say a couple words here. I appreciate the way that the question is framed. I might tweak, I might tweak the framing a little bit in my in my response which is, what are we doing here to rally and corral support around the trips waiver effort at the WTO. One of the really interesting aspects of and it is actually really difficult and challenging about the trips waiver conversation is that, you know, there's the trips waiver as it was introduced by proponents led by South Africa and India. And it was now over a year ago, anticipating that there would be developments to address to create tools for us for responding to the pandemic. I think that, you know, one aspect that I just want to highlight is for for those who are not very familiar with the way the WTO works. It's part of what makes WTO work really hard, but also something that makes the WTO really unique and is important to the structure of the WTO is the WTO operates on a consensus basis, which means that it truly is focused on its membership and the positive light consensus basis means that you can only move forward when you have done the work to listen to everyone and to get everyone to to move in a particular direction. On this issue, I think that the most, the most powerful argument is for as long as we are not able to effectively and comprehensively deploy the tools that are being developed to manage and address the COVID epidemiology. Our global economic situation will continue to be at the end of a leash that is controlled by the pandemic. And I know how deeply frustrating it is for everyone. I feel it personally, but I think that this is something that everyone in the world feels around this, you know, two steps forward one step back kind of sense of progress that we are making in terms of taking on the global COVID challenge. And it has economic implications. So, you know, for the context of the WTO, there is a there is a public health and there is a moral aspect to this which is let's save lives. But, you know, translate that into economic terms. I think that until we have a facilitated really comprehensive access to the, the tools that we are developing and, you know, again, all credit to the scientists who are, you know, making miracles happen through their technical work. But until we really comprehensively are able to provide access to those tools, we're going to continue to be in this herky jerky, you know, supply chain disrupted situation that I know is just deeply challenging to all of us but will pose a major obstacle to the robust recovery that we are all looking for. And, Ambassador, as we're on the WTO, I've got a question here from one of our own researchers, Dara Lawler, and also from Dan or Brian, who's our chief economist on as on the WTO. And I suppose it boils down to a question about how does the US plan to progress the reform agenda at the WTO, particularly with regard to the WTO's appellate body. Ambassador Collins, could you repeat the question I think I've got all the nouns and I think I might have missed the verb in there. And just how does the US plan to progress the reform agenda at the WTO, particularly with regard to the WTO's appellate body. Got it, got it. The key distinction is progress used as a verb. Okay. No, I appreciate this question and on the WTO questions in particular the ones that touch on dispute settlement. I've always got to exercise a little bit of discipline because I want to go down rabbit holes because this is, this is actually the environment in which I grew up as a trade policy professionals as a trade lawyer and a litigator litigator on behalf of the United States at the WTO. I have a lot of thoughts on this and maybe what I'll just do is by way of saying that I have a lot of thoughts, translate that into. I want to convey how deeply I care about this issue. And how many ideas and how hopeful I am about taking on a reform effort at the WTO first as a reform effort to continue to push the members of the WTO to motivate us collectively to push the WTO to be more responsive to the state of the global economy as it's evolved, whether with respect to how our trading partners have evolved at the WTO, I think, since, since 1994. There are more members now. And over the course of, I guess, the almost 30 years that is 1994 95 that the WTO started getting up and running. You know, the membership is not only increased in number but also the development, economic development of some of those members have really created changes in the global economic landscape. The need for the WTO itself to evolve to respond to our new reality on dispute settlement. I see that dispute settlement piece being a part of this larger need for reform and there's a lot of energy. There are a lot of ideas and you'd be surprised at how thoughtful. I do work on trade and the WTO in particular people are, you know, representing different countries so I'm very optimistic here on dispute settlement, similarly. I think that we need to come back to first principles on dispute settlement I know there's a lot of focus on the appellate body and I completely understand why it's there on the appellate body and why it's there on us. I understand the conversation to say that, you know, as the WTO needs to be reformed to be responsive. So too does its dispute settlement function need to evolve as as part of the institution. And I'll just say a couple words here we are really excited we have started engaging with our partners. We're excited to bring a vision and and to engage our vision with the visions and interests of all of the WTO members around, you know, what it is a dispute settlement function should provide. We think most fundamentally, it should, it should facilitate the settlement of disputes between members. And second, I think that fundamentally as an institutional matter, it should reinforce and facilitate the functioning of the other aspects of the WTO the negotiating function and also the monitoring function at the WTO as opposed to stifling them. And third, when we talk about dispute settlement, let's, you know, ground it in the settlement of disputes and separate it out from the litigation aspect, which is only one method of settling dispute so, you know, I've laid out some of this in the speech that I gave in Geneva last October. We will continue to do our work and I'm, I'm, I'm really excited and optimistic about the engagement that lies before us and taking on the question of how do we how do we take this opportunity of reform to build back the WTO better. Thank you, Ambassador. Some of these questions now may go back a little bit on some of the things you've already addressed if you, if you feel you've already addressed them that's fine, but question here from Bill Emmett who's an IEA member and of course who's a former editor of the Economist magazine. He says thank you, Ambassador Tai. He said two quick questions. One, why has the US removed tariffs on steel for the for the EU but not for the UK. And the second question is, what prospects do you see for the US joining the CPTPP, which the United States originally shaped. And I will try to be briefer in my responses so that we can get to more questions and I appreciate the clarity of the questions. One, why have we removed tariffs for the EU and not the UK. So, you know, I will say the process that we went through in negotiations and discussions with the EU took us about six months. And we kicked them off with a commitment at the US EU summit. When President Biden made his first trip out of the country and to Brussels last June, that we would take this up with the EU and I think that was Halloween October 31, when we announced that we had this solution here for moving forward with the EU. And I just want to, I want to focus on the fact that what we accomplished was not just removing tariffs. And, you know, the complexity in the discussions and why it took every just about every minute and every day of those six months is when I talk about resolving the tensions between us and, you know, optimizing opportunities for trade without compromising our principles, it very much is a characterization of the 232 discussions that we had with the EU, which is how can we ease up the trade measures that we've taken between us when we have so much in common in terms of our interests to be globally competitive and to continue to be able to produce steel and aluminum in our countries and our economies. And so, you know, what I really want to draw attention to is the arrangement that we arrived at does loosen up the trade restrictions between us between our markets. But most importantly, it is aligning our economies to take on the pressure that is impacting both of us globally, which is the over capacity in both of these sectors. And so, you know, to get at the question here, these conversations, the negotiations are really important, especially on that last part, which is how do we align against that global over capacity pressure. And, you know, how do we commit to developing strategies and new tools together and that's that's the global arrangement part the forward looking piece around ensuring that we are trading between us. Fair fairly produced and traded steel and aluminum, and also looking at the carbon intensity and retaining this mandate that we have to consider the sustainability of our trade and our production. So, why not the UK yet. I think you know my responses. It's a matter of pragmatism, you know, took us six months to to conduct these negotiations with the EU. I formally started our consultations on 232 with Japan. As of, I don't remember the date on what side I'll say as of second half of December. And, you know, we just need to have a process that makes sense, but certainly the UK is very much on our minds, and I am confident that we will take this up. When the time is right on the CPTPP question just again in the interest of brevity I think I might just copy and paste and then edit a little bit the answer I provided earlier to your question and master Collins around, you know, the T tip, which is right now our focus with the DC with our partners in Asia and the Indo Pacific region, we are bringing what the president has described as the an Indo Pacific economic framework. And I think that there are parallels here in terms of what we are trying to accomplish and the partnerships and bridges that we are seeking to build, which is ones that respond to the needs that all of our economic policymakers are facing right now with respect to the fact that our trade engagement is focused on and supportive of sustainability, resilience, inclusiveness and also competitiveness. So, if it's okay for me to copy and paste or refer back to an earlier answer, thank you very much. Thank you, Ambassador. And we're coming towards the end now just going to watch the time here a little bit. And just maybe just ask you two questions, maybe if they're unrelated but just within the time available to whatever extent you can address them one is from Susanna Choi. She says, can you speak to next steps and aspirations for the carbon steel elements of the US, EU steel and aluminium trade deal. And will this serve as a blueprint for other commodities going forward. And then just a second question if I may just to wrap it up then, and we wrap it up on this basis then from Doug Palmer from Politico. He says, could you talk about your recent, your goals for the recently resumed trilateral talks with the EU and Japan you already spoke about this to some extent. Anyway, he says quite a few, quite a bit of work has was done during the Trump administration in areas like industrial subsidies and forced technology transfer. Are you planning to build on the work that was done in the Trump administration or do you want to move negotiations in a new direction. And when do you expect to hold the next trilateral meeting with the EU and Japan counterparts and what do you expect can be accomplished by them. There's a lot of questions there so in the time available we have about three minutes. If you could do your best to cover as much of that as you could, and then we wrap up. Wonderful. Well, I've got I've got questions from real taskmasters and I appreciate that we're always wanting to make sure we we stay on task. Thank you, Suzanne is question about next steps on the global arrangement. We've, I think our teams have already started meeting, and, you know, this is critical, we're under a bit of a clock, but, you know, I think that certainly on our side of the project is a bit of a static. And I will let executive vice president and Rosca speak on his side, but no reason to think that his views will be different. You know, we, we're really committed to this vision that we are, we spent 2021 building which is of really strong us EU cooperation on the share challenges and the pressures that are economies are industries and workers are facing globally so where this can take us to Zana your question about other commodities. It's a really interesting question I hope that you know in a couple years when we look back we'll realize we've accomplished more than just something on steel and aluminum and that this will be useful to a broader conversation, but perhaps we can reconvene, you know, intermittently and see see where it takes us for now I think we're focused on the task before us. Doug, to your question about the trilateral. Yes, we're looking to build again, and to adapt the trilateral forum to the evolution of the challenges that we're facing I think the challenges we were facing before. We are still facing but there are also new aspects of those challenges, developments in those challenges, including I would say, you know, I will go into details just for the sake of time, but you know, always wanting to make sure that the investment of our time effort with our partners is is responsive to the real problems that we are facing and on when the next meeting will take place. I'll just confess to you, sometimes I'm the, I'm the worst person to ask about this, because I usually know when it appears on my calendar, and I know I got to start doing my homework so I know someone is working on that someone's on my team, and I'll just have to defer to them. Very good. Listen, you're very generous with your time, Ambassador. We're coming to the end. We're at 345 Irish time so we're going to wrap it up there unless there's any final remarks that you want to make but just from on my own behalf on behalf of the Institute and its membership. Just want to say thank you it's a very special moment for us that that you've chosen to give us this time and to cover as many issues we as we were able to do in the three quarters of an hour that we had. You've been very generous we very much appreciated and we very much forward to welcome you to Dublin physically at some stage in the not too distant future. Anytime I would like I would love to come and you know again, just circumstances permitting sooner or later, I will find my way. Very generous invitation and thank you for hosting me at this forum. It is a real privilege for me to have the opportunity to engage, and I want to thank you, I a and all of your audience for your interest in what I have to share. Okay, good luck with all of your work. Thank you very much indeed.