Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., want the Biden administration to hike the tariff on ferrosilicon produced in Russia or Belarus to 35%, and introduced a bill that directs it to do so. Tariffs can be changed for those countries because the U.S. ended normal trading relations with them because Russia, with Belarus' support, invaded Ukraine.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative canceled two public hearings on China's and Russia's compliance with World Trade Organization commitments, the agency announced this week. USTR said it received 22 comments and three requests to participate in the China-focused hearing, which "subsequently were withdrawn," and the agency canceled the meeting as a result. USTR also canceled its Russia-focused hearing after receiving two comments and one request to participate in the hearing, which also was withdrawn. The hearing on China had been scheduled to take place Oct. 4; the meeting on Russia, Oct. 12.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, in a Federal Register notice published Sept. 29, asked for applications from people who would like to serve on panels that review final determinations in antidumping or countervailing duty proceedings and amendments to AD/CVD statutes of a USMCA Party. These people would be on the roster from April 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. Applications are due by Nov. 30, and can be submitted at www.regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2023-0011.
The panel deciding whether Mexico's policy on genetically modified corn breaks the rules of the USMCA will probably rule by March 2024, Mexican Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said at a press conference in Washington after the High Level Economic Dialogue meetings Sept. 29.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced a bill that would hike the tariff on imported shrimp from India from zero percent to 10% in 2024, 20% in 2025, and 40% in 2026, a move he said is justified by the subsidies received by Indian shrimp farmers. About 40% of U.S. imports of shrimp are from India, the Sept. 28 news release said.
Canadian leaders with an interest in trading with the U.S. are looking South with trepidation, realizing that President Donald Trump could be back in office in 2026, when all three countries will have to agree to continue the NAFTA successor.
The U.S. has asked Mexico to review a new USMCA rapid response labor complaint against a Teklas automotive parts plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, the Labor Department said in a Sept. 25 news release. The request from DOL and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative follows a complaint filed in August by a Mexican labor union that claims Teklas is violating workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining rights.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai laid out her priorities for reforming the World Trade Organization, providing concrete options that the U.S. and other WTO members can take to reinvigorate the international trade forum. In a Sept. 22 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Tai said that the biggest tenets of WTO reform revolve around "improving transparency," rebuilding the body's ability to negotiate new rules for new challenges and dispute settlement reform.
The International Trade Commission recently released Revision 11 to the 2023 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which extended the dates of subheadings 9903.88.67 and 9903.88.68 through Dec. 31. Both subheadings cover product exclusions from Section 301 tariffs. The 67 subheading covers a variety of pumps, actuators and other mechanical appliances of Chapters 84, 85, 86, and 90. The 68 subheading covers a variety of medical devices.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking by video link at an Atlantic Council/Atlantik-Brücke program in Berlin Sept. 22, said she remains "very hopeful that we will have something to show the rest of the world in the next six-week period" as EU and U.S. negotiators continue to try to harmonize both trade defenses and approaches to privileging trade in green steel and aluminum.