A panel at the World Trade Organization held that 2015 countervailing duties levied against two Canadian producers of supercalendered paper relied on assumptions that were not justified, and an appellate body panel agreed on Feb. 6.
Union officials, port officials, airport executives and the head of the American Trucking Associations on Feb. 6 asked members of Congress to raise user fees so that they can invest in -- or benefit from -- capital projects that could speed cargo, reduce congestion and make their properties more resilient in the case of natural disasters.
In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump touted a “groundbreaking new agreement with China” without alluding to the work yet to get done in phase two, and said replacing NAFTA was a promise he kept. “Unfair trade is perhaps the single biggest reason that I decided to run for President,” he said, according to a White House transcript. “Six days ago, I replaced NAFTA and signed the brand-new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law.” Trump “also promised our citizens that I would impose tariffs to confront China's massive theft of America’s jobs,” he said. “Our strategy has worked. Days ago, we signed the groundbreaking new agreement with China that will defend our workers, protect our intellectual property, bring billions and billions of dollars into our treasury, and open vast new markets for products made and grown right here in the USA.”
Trade professionals should expect more tariffs if President Donald Trump is re-elected, warned a former U.S. trade representative, Bob Zoellick, who was speaking to an audience at the Washington International Trade Association on Feb. 4. In a second Trump term, “expect a China sequel.” He said that the European Union is clearly in his target sights now. “If you're in Brussels or if you’re in the European Commission embassy here,” he said, or if you're a company that does production in Europe, there's “a flashing yellow light and it’s turning orange. One thing we know about Trump, he’s not subtle.You're next.”
The effort to give Congress more say on Section 232 tariffs that has stalled so far is not broad enough to ensure that erratic tariffs are not levied, according to experts who spoke during a Feb. 5 briefing held by Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., a Ways and Means Committee member who has hosted trade sessions three times in the last few months. No other members of the committee responsible for trade attended, but Rep. Jim Cooper, Rep. Donna Shalala and Rep. Jim Costa, all Democrats, listened for at least part of the session, in addition to many Hill staffers and some lawyers, diplomats and industry representatives.
Experts disagreed on whether the spread of the coronavirus will make it impossible for China to reach its purchase commitments, or make it more likely that China will wish to please the U.S., as its economy suffers. But one thing most agreed on -- the disease's impact is another reminder, after the tariff war, that companies should diversify instead of being wholly reliant on Chinese factories. The experts were on a panel at the Washington International Trade Association conference Feb. 4 on the future of U.S.-China trade.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is requesting comments on whether the third set of tariff exclusions on Chinese imports on Section 301 List 1, set to expire April 18, should last another year, it said in a notice. The agency will start accepting comments on the extensions on Feb. 16. The comments are due by March 16, it said. The USTR has granted extensions to only six exclusions so far (see 1912190060).
Indonesia has given its customs officials the authority to stop counterfeit goods at the border, and just in 2020, has already seized $1 billion rupiah, or $73,000, worth of counterfeits that were set for export, according to Iwan Freddy Hari Susanto, charge d'affaires for the Indonesian Embassy. He was testifying Jan. 31 at a hearing on Indonesia's eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, and was describing numerous actions the country has taken to improve protections for intellectual property rights holders.
In addition to a directive to change the issuance of importer of record numbers and to increase penalties for those who help ineligible importers (see 2001310062), an executive order issued Jan. 31 tells CBP, in consultation with the U.S. trade representative, to develop compliance scores for each country's mail system. Checks of small packages that come through the mail will be used to evaluate the rates of counterfeit goods and contraband arriving from those countries, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 31 that mandates CBP work toward new criteria for obtaining importer of record numbers, and new consequences for customs brokers that help importers evade those criteria. The order directs the Department of Homeland Security to "issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to establish criteria importers must meet in order to obtain an importer of record number," and says one of those criteria must be that CBP debarment or suspension for reasons related to trade renders an importer ineligible.