U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer issued a statement after the African Growth and Opportunity Act was restored, criticizing the program.

Counterfeit apparel products are at risk of containing harmful chemicals, according to a report released Feb. 4 by the American Apparel and Footwear Association.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that in a meeting with Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, both countries' teams "recognized substantial progress in recent months and agreed to continue intensive engagement to address non-tariff barriers. In addition, they agreed to begin formal discussions on possible structural and strategic reforms in the context of the first USMCA Joint Review, including stronger rules of origin for key industrial goods, enhanced collaboration on critical minerals, and increased external trade policy alignment to defend workers and producers in the United States and Mexico and to combat the relentless dumping of manufactured goods in our region."

The U.S. Lumber Coalition in a Jan. 28 letter urged the U.S. trade representative to scrap the USMCA binational panel review system during the USMCA review process. The coalition said binational panel review "gives powers to international tribunals that the Constitution reserves for U.S. courts" and establishes tribunals immune from "constitutional oversight or democratic accountability."

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. intends to "have a longer-term reset to higher tariff rates," no matter the outcome of the Supreme Court case on the president hiking tariffs via the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He said his general counsel said he's not allowed to discuss publicly how the administration would replace IEEPA tariffs.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released the U.S. dollar procurement thresholds it will allow from foreign firms under the World Trade Organization agreement on procurement, United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Morocco Free Trade Agreement, the United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement and the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is modifying the allocations of in-quota quantity under the annual beef tariff-rate quota, by its authority under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, according to a Federal Register notice.

A notice from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to be published in the Federal Register Dec. 29 says that goods from Nicaragua that don't qualify for the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) should be entered beginning Jan. 1 under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9903.89.01. That tariff number doesn't add any duty past the most-favored nation rate, but the goods also are subject to the reciprocal tariff of 18%, which is applied by HTS heading 9903.02.47.

The U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization published a blunt response to reform discussions, arguing that the underpinning of the WTO -- that all countries should receive the same tariff rate, unless there is a comprehensive free-trade agreement between them -- was naive, "and that era has passed."

Steel interests, steelworkers and aluminum interests mostly said that 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum should remain for Canadian and Mexican exports even after upcoming USMCA review, with exceptions among some aluminum witnesses and the Mexican steel industry.