The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on whether any of the 178 existing Section 301 exclusions should be extended past Nov. 29. Comments must be submitted at https://comments.USTR.gov. The portal will open Sept. 16 at 12:01 a.m. EDT and close Oct. 16 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. A list of all the products that are receiving exclusions also will be at the portal.
After two days of talks between U.S. and Chinese officials, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that they and Chinese counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng have a "framework" for a deal for China's Byte Dance to divest TikTok to U.S. buyers, and that deal will be completed on Sept. 19 as Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump talk about the divestiture.
The Senate Finance Committee approved Bryan Switzer to be a deputy U.S. trade representative for Asia, textiles, investment, services, and intellectual property on Sept. 4, on a 15-12 vote. The confirmation vote will be held in the full Senate.
The U.S. invoked the rapid response labor mechanism under USMCA to investigate a Mexican meat processing facility. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that it had received a petition alleging that workers at the Alimentos Grole facility in Mexico are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The U.S. has therefore suspended liquidation of unliquidated entries of goods from the facility.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is extending by another three months certain current exclusions to its Section 301 investigation related to U.S. trade with China.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments that identify markets for inclusion in the 2025 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, it said in a notice to be published Aug. 18. The Notorious Markets List identifies online and physical markets that are reported to engage in or facilitate "substantial copyright piracy or trademark counterfeiting," the notice said. Comments also are being sought about the "issue focus" for the 2025 Notorious Markets List -- the "copyright piracy of sports broadcasts," the notice said. The deadline for submitting comments is Oct. 1. "Commenters should clearly identify potentially relevant markets and the reasons why the commenter believes a market should be included in the Notorious Markets List," the notice said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on how China is complying with its World Trade Organization commitments, including in its import regulation, export regulation, subsidies, non-tariff barriers, intellectual property rights enforcement, rule of law issues, and trade facilitation, or other issues.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is setting FY 2026 country allocations for imports under tariff-rate quotas for cane sugar and refined sugars. The FY 2026 import TRQ for raw cane sugar was established at 1,117,195 metric tons raw value (MTRV), the minimum amount to which the U.S. is committed under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Uruguay Round Agreements. The USTR now allocates this TRQ among supplying countries and customs areas, as follows: Argentina 46,260; Australia 89,293; Barbados 7,531; Belize 11,834; Bolivia 8,606; Brazil 155,993; Colombia 25,819; Congo (Brazzaville) 7,258; Costa Rica 16,137; Cote d'Ivoire 7,258; Dominican Republic 189,343; Ecuador 11,834; El Salvador 27,971; Eswatini 17,213; Fiji 9,682; Gabon 7,258; Guatemala 51,639; Guyana 12,910; Haiti 7,258; Honduras 10,758; India 8,606; Jamaica 11,834; Madagascar 7,258; Malawi 10,758; Mauritius 12,910; Mexico 7,258; Mozambique 13,986; Panama 31,199; Papua New Guinea 7,258; Paraguay 7,258; Peru 44,108; Philippines 145,235; South Africa 24,744; St. Kitts & Nevis 7,258; Taiwan 12,910; Thailand 15,061; Trinidad-Tobago 7,531; Uruguay 7,258; Zimbabwe 12,910.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, responding to a question about whether details in the recently announced trade deal with the EU could change before it comes into effect, said, "Right now, I have text from some of my European counterparts about making sure the details are correct and fully put on paper. So we feel very confident about it, and it's truly a solid path forward for our two countries."
Although deals have not been announced with South Korea, Mexico or Canada -- some of the biggest trading partners for the U.S. -- U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC that, "we don't feel any pressure to have deals" ahead of Aug. 1, when tariffs are slated to go up on all countries that have goods trade deficits with the U.S."