The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published the following documents related to WTO disputes in the Federal Register:
On April 4, 2018, MOFCOM issued Announcement 34, which states that China will impose retaliatory tariffs of 25% on soybeans, agricultural products, automobiles, chemicals, airplanes and a total of 106 US products in retaliation for the United States’ action under sec. 301.
On March 23, 2018, the Ministry of Commerce spokesperson released the following statement (unofficial translation) :
On 8 March, President Trump signed two proclamations – one on steel imports and one on aluminum imports (available here and here). As expected, the president is imposing, as from 23 March 2018, an additional 25% duty on steel, and an additional 10% duty on aluminum, imported from all countries except Canada and Mexico.
Just a quick reminder for those of you working at multinational companies which operate on a calendar year basis – do not forget to ask your tax colleagues whether any retroactive transfer pricing adjustments were made at, or before, year end (assuming they do not send this information to you on their own).
On 16 February 2018, the Official Journal published Regulation (EU) 2018/196 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 February 2018 on additional customs duties on imports of certain products originating in the United States of America (codification). The Regulation codifies the EU rules regarding the imposition of additional duties against certain products originating in the United States as a result of the United States Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA – also known as the ‘Byrd Amendment).
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:
On 3 November 2017, the WTO announced that at the 31 October-3 November meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules (NGR), members discussed in detail a previously-circulated text compiling seven earlier proposals, with a number of members suggesting insertions and other amendments to that text.
On 3 November 2017, the WTO announced that WTO members raised a range of trade concerns on pesticides in food products at the Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) on 2-3 November.
On 3 November, the WTO announced that at a meeting of the WTO’s Committee on Trade Facilitation, members for the first time engaged in substantive discussions on ongoing efforts to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which formally entered into force last February. The announcement said: