The U.S. is asking Mexico to address alleged labor violations at Minera Tizapa, a Zacazonapan zinc mine owned by Industrias Penoles. Exports from the mine will have liquidation suspended until a remediation plan is approved.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is hosting two additional in-person hearings on how to promote U.S. supply chain resilience through trade negotiations or enforcement and one virtual hearing.
China opened a case at the World Trade Organization against the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act's rules for electric vehicle subsidies and "other measures," the nation's Ministry of Commerce announced March 26, according to an unofficial translation.
The International Trade Commission issued a limited exclusion order banning imports of raised garden beds from Huizhou Green Giant Technology and Utopban Limited after finding the two companies misappropriated Vego Garden’s trade secrets and engaged in false advertising, the ITC said in a notice released March 26. The import ban concludes a Section 337 investigation the ITC began in 2022 (see 2210180055). The ITC also issued a cease and desist order against Utopban. It set bond at 100% of entered value for imports during the 60-day period that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has to review the exclusion order.
The American Apparel and Footwear Association's vice president for trade and customs policy is hearing that a higher competitive needs limitation will be part of a Generalized System of Preferences benefits program renewal.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced country-by-country allocations of additional FY 2024 in-quota quantities of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar. Of the 125,000 metric tons raw value added to the raw cane sugar TRQ by USDA in early March (see 2403060084), USTR is allocating quota amounts as follows: Australia 15,555; Belize 2,061; Bolivia 1,499; Brazil 27,174; Colombia 4,498; Costa Rica 2,811; Ecuador 2,061; El Salvador 4,873; Eswatini (Swaziland) 2,998; Fiji 1,687; Guatemala 8,996; Guyana 2,249; Honduras 1,874; Jamaica 2,061; Mozambique 2,436; Peru 7,684; Philippines 25,300; South Africa 4,310; Thailand 2,624; and Zimbabwe 2,249. The changes are effective March 19.
More than a quarter of the U.S. Senate asked the U.S. trade representative to push back against the EU Deforestation-Free Regulation, saying the approach presents "significant compliance issues due to its stringency and ambiguity. One specific concern is the traceability requirement. The EUDR imposes a geolocation traceability requirement that mandates sourcing to the individual plot of land for every shipment of timber product to the EU. In the U.S., 42 percent of the wood fiber used by pulp and paper mills comes from wood chips, forest residuals, and sawmill manufacturing residues -- wood sources that cannot be traced back to an individual forest plot."
The U.S. ambassador to Canada and the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. said trade cooperation between the two countries -- each is the other's top trading partner -- is crucial, but their tone on the NAFTA replacement was slightly different.
Twenty-two Republican senators -- including the top Republicans on the Senate Finance and Agriculture committees and one of the front-runners to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell -- argue that the "current sharp decline in U.S. agricultural exports is directly attributable to and exacerbated by an unambitious U.S. trade strategy that is failing to meaningfully expand market access or reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade."
Panelists from the U.S. and Mexico said that cars assembled in Mexico by Chinese-owned firms can't enter the U.S. with USMCA benefits because of the stringent rules of origin, but spent less time talking about how cars manufactured outside China, including in the U.S., could enter under 2.5% most favored nation tariffs.