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.
Large steel and aluminum corporations and associations representing small and medium-sized metal processors, recyclers and environmental advocates told the International Trade Commission that it's on the right track in the questions it's asking about embedded carbon in steelmaking and aluminum smelting, but that choosing detailed data is tricky, and, in some cases, not possible for smaller companies to produce. Broadly, there are scope 1 emissions, which are the greenhouse gases produced through onsite processes; scope 2, which cover the purchased electricity needed for manufacturing and scope 3, which cover the embedded carbon of inputs, whether raw materials or semifinished goods.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said there is no interest in offering Taiwan "a very, very comprehensive, maximally liberalizing, aggressively liberalizing agreement." Tai, who was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum Dec. 7, was asked if the administration would pursue a free trade agreement with Taiwan, since Congress passed a bill welcoming such a negotiation. "We're not doing that with anybody right now," she added.
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.
Seventeen senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are asking the U.S. trade representative to reach "an expedited agreement with the European Union" so that tariffs don't return on exported whiskey Jan. 1. That tariff would be 50% under the schedule the EU imposed as retaliation for the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports.
A bill that would ban the import of seafood of Chinese origin -- which includes fish caught in Alaska but processed in China -- was introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., and Rick Scott, R-Fla.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, acknowledged in a hallway interview at the Capitol that he has been briefed that the Biden administration will lift Section 301 tariffs from some products as part of its review of the action against Chinese trade abuses.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Nov. 29 released country-by-country reallocations of unused FY 2024 in-quota amounts for the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar. "Based on consultation with quota holders, the U.S. Trade Representative has determined to reallocate 223,740 [metric tons raw value (MTRV)] of the original TRQ quantity from those countries that have stated they do not plan to fill their FY 2024 allocated raw cane sugar quantities," it said. Reallocated quantities are as follows: Argentina 15,592; Australia 30,098; Belize 3,989; Bolivia 2,901; Brazil 52,581; Colombia 8,703; Costa Rica 5,439; Ecuador 3,989; El Salvador 9,428; Eswatini (Swaziland) 5,802; Guatemala 17,406; Guyana 4,352; Honduras 3,626; Jamaica 3,989; Malawi 3,626; Mauritius 4,352; Mozambique 4,714; Panama 10,516; Peru 14,868; South Africa 8,340; Thailand 5,077; and Zimbabwe 4,352.
The top trade negotiator for the EU, Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, said the EU's political leadership sees "no prospect to agree on a concept" for a global arrangement on steel, to box out unfairly traded steel and privilege steel made with less carbon intensity.
A USMCA dispute settlement panel ruled in Canada’s favor in a much-awaited second decision on Canada’s dairy tariff rate quotas, according to a report released by the panel on Nov. 24.