The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on whether any of the 178 existing Section 301 exclusions should be extended past Nov. 29. Comments must be submitted at https://comments.USTR.gov. The portal will open Sept. 16 at 12:01 a.m. EDT and close Oct. 16 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. A list of all the products that are receiving exclusions also will be at the portal.
After two days of talks between U.S. and Chinese officials, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that they and Chinese counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng have a "framework" for a deal for China's Byte Dance to divest TikTok to U.S. buyers, and that deal will be completed on Sept. 19 as Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump talk about the divestiture.
President Donald Trump posted over the weekend that he is prepared to levy new sanctions against Moscow if U.S. allies stop purchasing Russian oil and potentially put in place other sanctions against the country.
Former U.S. trade representative Michael Froman said the standards set by the World Trade Organization have been under stress for 15 years, and that its principles of global non-discrimination, bound tariff levels and restrictions on what can count as a bilateral or regional trade deal are dead for good.
White House trade official Peter Navarro will need to be sidelined for a trade deal between the U.S. and India to emerge, according to Mark Linscott, a former assistant U.S. trade representative for South and Central Asia. Navarro's comments about India have inflamed the conflict, Linscott said, and have made trade negotiations more difficult.
Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., a member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, told International Trade Today that Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., is looking to pass a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act "now that we got the big, beautiful bill through," adding that Smith has wanted to do this "for a while."
The Senate Finance Committee approved Bryan Switzer to be a deputy U.S. trade representative for Asia, textiles, investment, services, and intellectual property on Sept. 4, on a 15-12 vote. The confirmation vote will be held in the full Senate.
The EU Parliament is debating a proposal to lower its own tariffs, operating as though the U.S. is upholding its end of the U.S.-EU agreement, despite apparent U.S. failure to enact promised tariff reductions on EU goods. On Sept 1, the EU Parliament held an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on International Trade to discuss the legislation and the deal as a whole.
CBP late last week provided guidance on the extension of Section 301 product exclusions for goods imported from China, noting that ACE functionality for the acceptance of these exclusions is available.
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