On January 24, 2018, the Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published in the Federal Register a final rule [FAC 2005–97; FAR Case 2018–001; Docket No. 2018–0004; Sequence No. 1]
On January 23, 2018, the Canadian Prime Minister announced that the 11 countries still committed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, now renamed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), have agreed to an agreement after talks in Japan this week. Trade ministers will attend a signing ceremony in Chile in March. Details will be announced shortly. Certain provisions will be suspended for now with the thought that a future US administration might join the…
On December 27, 2017, the Diario Oficial (Official Gazette) published the US Dollar and national money (Peso) thresholds for government procurements subject to free trade agreements. The Secretary of Public Function notified the amounts in Office No. UNCP/309/ TU/786/2017. The amounts are in effect from January 1, 2018 through June 30, 2018.
On December 28, 2017, the Office of the United States 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. The level of a country’s trade surplus in these goods relates to the quantity of sugar and syrup goods and sugar-containing products for which the United States grants preferential tariff treatment under the applicable free trade agreements and trade promotion agreements. The notice is applicable on January 1, 2018.
On December 28, 2017, the Defense Acquisition Regulations System, Department of Defense (DoD) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket DARS-2017—0017] amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to incorporate revised thresholds for application of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and the Free Trade Agreements, as determined by the United States Trade Representative. The thresholds are effective January 1, 2018. The thresholds are shown below:
At the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC“) Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, the 11 remaining countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP11“) took a significant step forward to finalize a new agreement now referred to as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (“CPTPP“). Media reports were mixed as some outlets reported that there was an agreement in principle while others reported that Canada was not ready to sign on. However, the end result is an impressive draft agreement in principle on most of the existing terms with some key exceptions and a few remaining issues from Canada’s perspective. To its credit, Japan has been leading the effort to move forward with the CPTPP in hopes of the United States rejoining the agreement at some point in the future.
On 11 November 2017, In the margins of the APEC meetings in Da Nang, Vietnam, the TPP ministers of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, agreed to the following statement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership:
On 27 September 2017, the UK Department for International Trade announced that the UK Government was launching a new ‘trade dialogue’ with emerging markets in South America to strengthen bilateral trade and investment relationships and to seek continuity in UK trade relationships post Brexit. According to the announcement, the dialogue will focus on the UK’s strong trade links with 3 Andean countries: Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In addition, the government’s export credit agency, UK Export…
In the August 12, 2017 Canada Gazette, Global Affairs Canada announced that the Government is seeking the views of the Canadian public and interested Canadian stakeholders on the scope of potential negotiations regarding a possible Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Pacific Alliance (whose members are Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru).
On July 14, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice providing country-by-country allocations of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (October 1, 2017 through Sept. 30, 2018) in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar, certain sugars, syrups and molasses (also known as refined sugar), specialty sugar, and sugar-containing products.