The Biden administration recommends that metal importers avoid sourcing from or brokering through Myanmar-military owned or affiliated companies, "even if their supply chains appear to be completely outside" the country, so that their sourcing doesn't violate sanctions.

U.S. negotiators will travel to Kenya to have talks under the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership at the end of the month. "The negotiators last met in person under the STIP in October 2023 in Washington, DC, and have continued to make progress in deepening mutual understanding and resolving differences," the Office of U.S. Trade Representative said. The discussions will cover agriculture, good regulatory practices and workers' rights, it said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notified CBP that liquidation can resume for goods imported from the Autoliv Steering Wheels facility in El Marques, Mexico.

For the second time, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked the Mexican government to investigate whether service center workers were being denied their right to form a union, under the rapid response labor mechanism in the USMCA.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is amending an exclusion from Section 301 tariffs to align it with recent changes to the relevant Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading (see 2401020049). The change affects the exclusion under U.S Note 20(ttt)(iii)(27) to subchapter III of Chapter 99, which had covered goods of subheading 2929.90.5090 and now covers goods of subheading 2929.90.5095 for entries on or after Jan. 1.

The International Trade Commission will analyze the export competitiveness of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and India, after a request from the U.S. trade representative. She asked the commission to track the apparel market shares of each of those countries in 2013, 2018 and 2023, and to describe the changing patterns in those market shares, including against other top suppliers of apparel.

Both Asian countries and American businesses had hoped that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework could be a step on the road to lowering tariffs, trade experts said during a webinar on the future of IPEF, but now they're wondering if there will be any economically significant effect at all from talks about trade facilitation, green transition and supply chain resilience.

India and the U.S. should aim for "economically meaningful outcomes" from better customs and trade facilitation, supply chain linkages, trade in high-tech products and trade in critical minerals between the two countries, India's commerce minister and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a joint statement.

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.