Australia's tariff rate quota limits for 2024 for beef, dairy products, avocados, peanuts and tobacco were announced by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in a Federal Register notice released Jan. 8.
Liquidation of imports of remanufactured auto parts from Tecnologia Modificada, a Caterpillar, Inc., subsidiary in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, may resume now that a rapid response labor complaint from the Office of U.S. Trade Representative has been resolved.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that "after careful consultations," she has decided not to interfere with the International Trade Commission's Section 337 decision that Apple infringed on two patents owned by Masimo Corp. and Cercacor Laboratories, Inc. The ITC ruled Oct. 26. Apple last week said it would stop sales of two of its models of the Apple Watch (see 2312180066).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is reallocating 3,217 metric tons raw value of sugar to Fiji, according to a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published Dec. 26. USTR reallocated 223,740 metric tons raw value of sugar Nov. 30 for the FY2024 tariff rate quota, but inadvertently omitted Fiji (see 2311290014).
Apparel, which accounts for about 37% of imports covered by Caribbean Basin Initiative and Haiti-specific programs, may no longer support jobs in Haiti if a renewal of at least 10 years isn't passed well ahead of Haiti's HOPE and HELP programs' expiration in October 2025, industry is arguing.
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 2024. USTR found Colombia 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, Panama and Peru don't qualify.
In a report on how Russia is living up to its World Trade Organization commitments -- a report produced every other year for Congress -- the U.S. trade representative wrote that Russia has expanded import substitution to state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, including a ban on imported equipment.
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative asked Mexico to investigate Fujikura Automotive Mexico's factory in Piedras Negras, which it says may be blacklisting workers who were active in the union at Manufacturas VU. Manufacturas VU was the target of two rapid response labor mechanism findings under USMCA, and closed rather than implement the remediation plan that Mexico and the U.S. required it to do to maintain tariff benefits under the pact (see 2310100066).
A Mexican garment factory has successfully completed a remediation plan to resolve a rapid response complaint against its factory in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a Dec. 11 news release. The complaint against Industrias del Interior was the first USMCA facility-specific rapid response petition filed in the garment sector, USTR said.
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. 21 hearing.