The International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued a press release announcing that it has made a negative determination with regard to its safeguard investigation involving uncovered innerspring units from China.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing that on December 23, 2003, the U.S. requested World Trade Organization (WTO) consultations with Egypt regarding the import duties that Egypt applies to textile and apparel products. The USTR believes that the duties Egypt actually applies (on a "per article" basis) greatly exceed the ad valorem bound rates that Egypt agreed to apply in the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing that the U.S. intends to initiate free trade negotiations with Panama. (See ITT's Online Archives or 12/04/03 news, (Ref: 03120425), for BP summary of USTR's press release announcing its Congressional notification of this intention.)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice requesting written comments by March 26, 2004 concerning the establishment of a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel to examine the European Communities (EU) Regulation 2081/92, as amended, which governs the protection of geographical indications for agricultural foodstuffs.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has inadvertently published a notice containing erroneously selected and organized 10-month data on the Competitive Need Limitations (CNLs) under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program.
The Washington Trade Daily (WTD) reports that the free trade negotiations that began with Bahrain in January 2004 are nearly half completed, with an negotiations possibly being completed as early as June. The WTD states that the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) believes Kuwait, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could possibly dock into this agreement. (WTD Pub 03/04/04, www.washingtontradedaily.com)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice requesting written comments by April 16, 2004 concerning the European Communities' (EC's) request for the establishment of a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel (DSP) regarding offsets to calculated dumping margins for instances of non-dumping.
The Washington Trade Daily (WTD) has reported that the Senate began debate on March 3, 2004 to repeal the current Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income Tax Exclusion (FSC/ETI) regime. According to Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Sen. Grassley, the FSC/ETI could be replaced with the Jumpstart Our Business Strength Act (JOBS Act) which would use all of the money from the repeal to provide a 3 point tax rate cut on income from U.S.-based manufacturing. (WTD Pub 03/04/04, www.washingtontradedaily.com, Sen. Grassley's press release dated 03/02/04, available at http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2004/prg030204.pdf)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has posted to its Web site the draft text of the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), which is dated March 1, 2004.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.