On June 7, 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published in the Federal Register a final rule [CBP Dec. 17-03] that amends the CBP regulations to reflect the extension of import restrictions on certain archaeological and ethnological materials from Peru.
In Hanoi, Vietnam, Trade Ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum issued an actions statement reflecting the outcomes of their 23rd Meeting. Listed below are the subjects covered.
Ministers and Vice Ministers from the Trans-Pacific Partnership signatory countries issued the following Statement:
21 May 2017. Ha Noi, Viet Nam – Ministers and Vice Ministers from Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and Viet Nam met today to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade.
On May 10, 2017, CBP issued CSMS #17-000270 FTA Origination Analysis and Certification when no Tariff Change Rule (TCR). We quote the CSMS below:
The WTO announced that WTO members discussed five new or enhanced proposals to advance services negotiations at meetings of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation and the Services Council on 14-17 March 2017. Four of these proposals aim to ensure that domestic licensing procedures and technical standards do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade while one proposal relates to the establishment of a trade facilitation agreement for services. The WTO provided the following summaries:
The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report of its inquiry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was tabled in Parliament on 7 February 2017.
On January 23, 2017, the President signed Presidential Memorandum Regarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement.
On 24 December 2016, the Official Journal published Council Decision (EU) 2016/2369 of 11 November 2016 on the signing, on behalf of the Union, and provisional application of the Protocol of Accession to the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, to take account of the accession of Ecuador. The Council Decision authorises the EU to sign and provisionally apply…
On January 2, 2016, the Federal Register published Proclamation 9549 of December 1, 2016 – To Modify the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States and for Other Purposes. The Proclamation modifies the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) to implement the 2017 Harmonized System revisions adopted by the WCO. The actual modifications are incorporated by reference from Annex I of U.S. International Trade Commission Publication 4653 titled, ‘‘Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Under Section 1206 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.’’
Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to report to the WTO all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade with other Member countries. The WTO Secretariat distributes this information in the form of “notifications” to all Member countries. The chart below summarizes notifications from the WTO in English received and posted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) during the past month.