Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Chris Coons, D-Del, laid out parameters of a trade package they hope to get passed in the next three weeks in Congress.
Japan imposed antidumping duties on hot-dipped galvanized steel wire from South Korea and China, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced Dec. 2. Following an investigation that began in June 2021, METI and the Ministry of Finance found duties were needed to protect the domestic industry in Japan. The duties range from 9.8% to 41.7%, and are in effect Dec. 8, 2022, to Dec. 7, 2027.
The U.K. imposed antidumping and countervailing duties on shipments of electric bicycles from exporters Jinhua Otmar Technology and Jinhua Seno Technology, following a new exporter review, the Department for International Trade announced. Otmar and Seno were levied a 16.2% antidumping rate and a 17.2% countervailing duty rate on their exports of cycles, including those with pedal assistance or an auxiliary electric motor. The duties take effect Nov. 30 and expire either Jan. 19, 2024, or the date the secretary of state specifies in a notice.
World Trade Organization members addressed a "record number of trade concerns" during a Nov. 24-25 meeting of the Council for Trade in Goods, the WTO said. Topics included how the council could implement some of the outcomes of the 12th Ministerial Conference: the work program on electronic commerce, the WTO's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and WTO reform. The committee also wanted to continue talks on the Least-Developed Countries Group's proposal for some countries to graduate from LDC status. The next council meeting is April 3-4.
The U.S. again blocked a proposal to start the selection process to fill seats on the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, according to a Geneva-based trade official. Striking down the proposal at the Dispute Settlement Body's Nov. 28 meeting, the U.S. said it does not support filling the body's seats, insisting the first step to WTO revisions should be efforts to better understand the concerns of WTO members, the trade official said.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the primary movers behind the Chips Act, told an audience that more domains need policymakers' attention so that they don't wake up to find that China has become dominant in an important emerging technology. He noted that before becoming a politician, he "was in the telecommunication space," and said that realizing that China is dominating 5G with two heavily subsidized champion companies was the "final wake-up call" that engagement and deeper trade with China is not the right way to go.
The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the Nov. 28 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. It includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. A status report also is expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
South Africa recently began a sunset review of antidumping duties on “frozen bone-in portions of poultry” from the U.S., USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said Nov. 16. The South African Poultry Association told the country’s International Trade Administration Commission that expiration of AD on the poultry imports, scheduled for Nov. 23, “would likely lead to the continuation or recurrent of dumping or material injury.” South Africa said the application submitted by the association “has enough prima facie evidence to trigger a sunset review investigation” for the period of Jan. 1, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2021. USDA said U.S. bone-in chicken shipments to South Africa have been subject to AD since 2000.
Of all the outstanding trade policy options -- new trade promotion authority, requiring Section 301 exclusions, revisions to antidumping law and a customs modernization law -- the head of government relations at Flexport said he thinks customs modernization is the most likely to pass. "I think we are coming on the cusp of something," Darien Flowers said, and said he thinks a bill will be enacted before 2025. Flowers once worked for Sen. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who is leading the bill, though more recently he served on the minority staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.
The World Trade Organization on Nov. 1 opened the Trade Remedies Data Portal, a tool that will give access to information on WTO members' antidumping and countervailing duty actions, the WTO said. The portal will display the data via searchable tables and customizable graphs, and allow users to filter the data based on certain parameters. The portal has data on AD/CVD actions that led to the application of trade remedy measures in force on or after Jan. 1, 2020, with updates for information prior to 2020 expected next year. The portal was developed in conjuction with the WTO Secretariat's Open Trade Data Initiative.