The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 20-26:
The U.S. should work toward removing Burmese individuals and entities from the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), add Myanmar to its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, and launch dialogue on concluding a bilateral investment treaty between the two countries, a white paper released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said (here). “The initial U.S. easing of sanctions has encouraged a small number of U.S. businesses to invest or consider investing in Myanmar after a prolonged absence,” the paper says. “In the last four years, trade with Myanmar has increased to its highest levels in decades, and U.S. companies, brands, and products have provided both jobs and training opportunities and their goods and services now line store shelves and are available throughout the country.” U.S. companies are worried about doing even legitimate business in the country because of existing sanctions, and Burmese citizens are frustrated with low U.S. commercial investment and limited export opportunities, attributing these situations to restrictive U.S. sanctions and tax and tariff policies, the paper says.
The International Trade Commission on May 27 released the public version of its report to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on potential changes to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program for 2015/2016, it said in a press release (here). The 253-page report (here), 207 pages longer than last year's, includes data related to potential additions of products for all GSP beneficiary countries under subheadings 2204.21.20 (effervescent wine), 3301.13.00 (essential oil of lemon), and 7202.11.50 (ferromanganese containing by weight more than 4 percent of carbon). For potential addition of products under least-developed beneficiary developing countries and African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) countries, the report includes data on the 29 subheadings for certain handbags and travel goods products under heading 4202. The report will inform USTR’s 2015/2016 GSP Review. The advice contained in the report is confidential.
It's time for companies to "re-double their efforts to show the importance of renewing [the Generalized System of Preferences] before it expires again on December 31, 2017," said the Coalition for GSP in a blog post (here). As part of the effort, the group released reports on 2015 GSP-related imports, savings, and benefits for companies in all 50 states (here). Congress last renewed GSP in 2015 (see 1506250019), some two years after it expired.
U.S.-Albania trade rose 59 percent, to $190.8 million, from 2014 to 2015, and Albanian companies last year exported $2.9 million worth of goods under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), an official from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in remarks May 11 during the WTO’s second review of the country’s trade policy and practices (here). The official noted that Albania has switched to a digital system for customs and border compliance, streamlining import processing and “substantially” reducing fees, and lauded the country for ratifying the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) on May 10 (see 1605100010).
The U.S.-Tunisia Trade and Investment Council held its sixth session on March 22 in Washington to explore ways to boost trade and investment between the two countries, including greater Tunisian use of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). The Tunisian delegation indicated its intent to ratify the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of the year and its plans to become an observer to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, USTR said. The two parties plan to meet in Tunis in 2017 to assess progress on their bilateral initiatives. Tunisia is a leading exporter of olive oil and dates to the U.S. under GSP, but some of those dates under subheading 0804.10.60 are set to lose GSP eligibility on July 1 absent a presidential waiver (see 1602290031), as competitive needs limitation (CNL) waivers on that subheading were pending as of Feb. 23. USTR didn't comment.
A group of nearly one hundred companies and associations called for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to add all eligible travel goods to the duty-free import list for all Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries in a March 25 letter to USTR Director for GSP Aimee Larsen (here). Industry urged USTR to add 29 HTS subheadings for GSP duty-free treatment during a public hearing earlier this month (see 1603040042). Lower duty costs for U.S. travel goods companies should create U.S. jobs, pass savings on to consumers, and spur product innovation, the letter says. “Because the vast majority of travel goods sold in the United States are imported from just one GSP-ineligible country, designating these articles as eligible for the full range of GSP countries would further diversify sourcing, leading to job creation in communities throughout the developing world,” said the coalition, which includes several broker groups, the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is starting to review the eligibility of certain imports from Nepal for preferential tariff treatment, USTR said (here). The review is a result of authority granted through the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (see 1603010043). The law authorizes the White House and USTR to begin consideration of extending duty-free treatment to certain goods from Nepal of HTS headings 4202, 4203, 5701, 5702, 5703, 5705, 6117, 6214, 6216, 6217, 6301, 6308, 6504, 6505 and 6506, subject to certain conditions.
In recent editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted (here):
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 29 - March 4 in case they were missed.