On January 24, 2020, President Trump issued a Proclamation on Adjusting Imports of Derivative Aluminum Articles and Derivative Steel Articles into the United States under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Except as otherwise provided in the proclamation, all imports of derivative aluminum articles specified in Annex I to the proclamation shall be subject to an additional 10 percent ad valorem rate of duty, and all imports of derivative steel articles specified…
On January 24, 2020, 17 WTO members issued a statement agreeing to establish a temporary system for appealing WTO disputes. They reached an agreement during the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The WTO members include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the European Union, Guatemala, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Singapore, Switzerland and Uruguay. Canada and the EU had earlier established a separate interim appeals procedure. The statement indicated…
On December 2, 2019, President Trump sent a tweet which stated ” Brazil and Argentina have been presiding over a massive devaluation of their currencies. which is not good for our farmers. Therefore, effective immediately, I will restore the Tariffs on all Steel & Aluminum that is shipped into the U.S. from those countries. The Federal … Reserve should likewise act so that countries, of which there are many, no longer take advantage of our…
On October 25, 2019, USTR announced that President Trump is suspending $1.3 billion in trade preferences for Thailand under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) based on its failure to adequately provide internationally-recognized worker rights. In addition, the President is restoring some GSP benefits for Ukraine following its passage of legislation aimed at addressing shortcomings in its intellectual property (IP) regime. USTR also announced it is opening new GSP eligibility reviews for two countries: South…
On 24 August 2019, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) announced that delegations from Member States of the European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and of Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) convened in Buenos Aires on 20 to 23 August to continue their talks on a broad-based free trade agreement. This tenth round allowed the Parties to conclude the negotiations in substance in all areas. Note by the EFTA Secretariat states:…
On March 19, 2019, the US White House released a joint statement by US President Trump and Brazilian President Bolsonaro in which they committed to building a new partnership between their two countries focused on increasing prosperity, enhancing security, and promoting democracy, freedom, and national sovereignty. The main points of this commitment are:
The US International Trade Commission has issued Revision 11 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of he United States. Revision 11 includes: Changes needed to implement the recent exemptions from absolute quotas on steel from Argentina, Brazil and South Korea and aluminum from Argentina (Effective Aug. 30, 2018); Changes to the US Bahrain FTA rules of origin (Effective Sept. 1, 2018); and Modified subheading 9705.00.0085 (Effective July 1, 2018)
On 18 July 2018, the Official Journal published Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1013 of 17 July 2018 imposing provisional safeguard measures with regard to imports of certain steel products. On 26 March 2018, the Commission published a Notice of Initiation of a safeguard investigation concerning imports of 26 steel product categories (2018/C 111/10) in the Official Journal. The Commission decided to initiate the investigation in the light of sufficient evidence that imports of those products might cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the Union producers concerned. On 28 June, the investigation was extended to two additional product categories. There was also a high risk of further increase of imports resulting from trade diversion due to the measures against imports of steel adopted by the United States under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (‘Section 232’). The 28 product categories (‘the product concerned’ or the ‘product categories concerned’) are all covered by the steel surveillance mechanism introduced by the Commission in May 2016. They are also subject to the US tariff measures under Section 232.
The WTO announced that Members expressed their concerns over possible measures by the United States regarding extra duties on the import of automobiles, including cars, SUVs, vans, light trucks and automotive parts, at the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) held on 3 and 4 of July. Over 40 members — including the 28 European Union members — took the floor to warn of the “serious disruption” to world markets and the multilateral trading system that may arise as a result of these potential measures, particularly in light of the large proportion of global trade accounted for by these products. The announcement said:
On June 5, 2018, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) posted (Amended) QB 18-122, which provides information on annual absolute quota quantities for Argentina and Brazil steel imports as of June 1, 2018. Additional information may be issued at the end of each quarter for convenience of importers of steel products under absolute quota. On June 4, 2018, CBP posted QB 18-123 Announcement for Steel Mill Articles: South Korea, provides information on annual absolute quota…