On December 15, 2015, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of determination of procurement thresholds for calendar years 2016 and 2017. Executive Order 12260 requires the USTR to set the U.S. dollar thresholds for application of Title III of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2511 et seq.), which implements U.S. trade agreement obligations, including those under the WTO Agreement on Government…
On December 11, 2015, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of its determination of the trade surplus in certain sugar and syrup goods and sugar containing products of Chile, Morocco, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, and Panama. As described in the notice, the level of a country’s trade surplus in these goods relates to the quantity of sugar and syrup goods…
On November 17, 2015, the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) announced that has instituted an investigation to assess the likely impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that the President has announced he intends to enter into with Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. The investigation, Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Likely Impact on the U.S. Economy and on Specific Industry Sectors (Investigation No. TPA-105-001), was requested by the U.S.…
On November 5, 2015, President Obama formally notified Congress of his intention to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, starting the 90 day statutorily required period for public review before he can sign the agreement. His notice of November 5, 2015, was published in the Federal Register on November 9, 2015. The Letters to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate read as follows: Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:) Consistent…
On November 5, 2015, several of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) signatories posted the official texts of the TPP’s 30 chapters, annexes and tariff schedules. Several also posted the bilateral procedural documents (side texts, understandings and letter exchanges) that apply to them. The TPP text is still to undergo a process of legal review, translation and verification. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is the Official Depositary and has the individual…
On October 5, 2015, the White House announced that Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, New Zealand, the United States, and Vietnam, agreed to the largest regional trade accord in history. The original negotiations were to end last week, but were extended over the weekend because agreement on the remaining issues appeared to be within reach. [Details will be available later. A Joint Ministerial press release was issued at a Press Conference…
On April 10, 2015, the Hon. Rob Nicholson, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Heraldo Muñoz, Chile’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced the conclusion of negotiations to modernize the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA). The announcement took place on the margins of the Seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama City. The modernized agreement contains a new chapter on sanitary and phytosanitary measures that will strengthen bilateral cooperation and collaboration on SPS-related issues and formalize…
Australian Customs and Border Protection Notice No. 2014/57 of 3 December 2014 notifies traders that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has advised of changes to statistical codes in the Customs Tariff Working pages, from 1 January 2015, for tariff subheadings 7227.90.90, 7228.70.00, 7308.90.00, 7312.10.00, 7312.90.00. In addition, The duty rates applying to certain TCF goods in Chapters 39, 40, 42, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 96 of Schedule 3 of the Customs Tariff…