The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a trade strategy to combat forced labor, which includes policy successes during the Biden administration and "areas for potential future action" for the next administration, it announced in a Jan. 13 news release.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published a series of policy papers focused on improving supply chain resilience. The series, titled Adapting Trade Policy for Supply Chain Resilience: Responding to Today’s Global Economic Challenges, features six papers informed by public hearings the agency held earlier this year (see 2405010016 and 2405020075). These policy papers "remind us of where we have traveled, acknowledge the challenges that shape our journey today, and light our path ahead to better serving all Americans for generations to come," U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked the International Trade Commission to study the "distributional effects of goods and services trade and trade policy on U.S. micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises," particularly those that are women-owned, minority-owned (including by a person with a disability or gay- or trans-owned) and those in rural locations.
There will be no changes in 2025 to the countries that can participate in the trade benefits of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a spokesperson from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced last week.
The U.S. requested three more panels under the rapid response labor mechanism in the USMCA to investigate three Mexican manufacturing facilities. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that the U.S. and Mexico "were not able to agree on a plan for the full resolution of workers’ concerns at their facilities," and so USTR activated the dispute settlement panel under USMCA.
The U.S. requested a panel under the rapid response mechanism in the USMCA for the third time to investigate a Canadian mining facility located in Mexico. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that the U.S. and Mexico were unable to come to an agreement and so "the United States therefore has determined that it is appropriate to request a panel to verify the facility’s compliance with Mexican labor laws."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced eligibility for “trade surplus” tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) for sugar originating in certain free trade agreement countries for calendar year 2025. USTR found Colombia, Panama and five members of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement -- Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua -- eligible for the TRQ. The agency found that Chile, the Dominican Republic, Morocco and Peru don't qualify.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in preparation for its April Special 301 Report on countries that don't provide adequate protection of intellectual property rights, is seeking comments as well as requests to testify at a Feb. 19 hearing.
Facing Fentanyl, the Victims of Illicit Drugs and Families Against Fentanyl withdrew their Section 301 petition that asked the U.S. Trade Representative to double the 25% tariffs on Section 301 tariffs on lists 1 and 2 and asked the government to exclude Chinese goods from de minimis (see 2410180039).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking applications from Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Native Alaskans who want to serve as an indigenous peoples' representative on the observer delegation to the Partnership Council of the Indigenous Peoples Economic and Trade Cooperation Arrangement. Applications for the two-year terms are due by Dec. 6 at 5 p.m. EST. Applications should be sent to mbx.ustr.iape@ustr.eop.gov.