The EU this week adopted new trade measures to support Ukraine during its war with Russia, including a one-year suspension of certain import duties. The measures, announced May 24, will suspend duties on certain industrial products, fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products. The EU also will stop collection of antidumping duties on Ukrainian imports and suspend the application of the bloc’s common rules for imports for goods originating in the country. The measures will take effect one day after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.

The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the May 31 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. It includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB on the following: 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 is also expected from Indonesia on measures relating to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.

Pakistan will lift its antidumping duties on certain polyester filament yarn imports from China and Malaysia, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported May 16. The duties will be lifted Aug. 25 unless a sunset review is conducted before then, HKTDC said. Imports of the yarn produced in or exported from either China or Malaysia are currently subject to duties of “from 2.87% to 6.82% of cost and freight value,” the report said.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Bureau of Industry and Security is leaning toward new export controls on brain computer interface technologies despite urging from industry to avoid the restrictions altogether. Thea Kendler, BIS assistant secretary for export administration, said BCI technology has too many potential “nefarious” uses to not be subject to at least some restrictions.

PHILADELPHIA -- The Bureau of Industry and Security has no immediate plans to remove the virus that caused the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, from its export control classification of EAR99 (see 2002250069), a government official said. Removing the virus from EAR99 -- a classification for products that generally don't require export licenses under the Export Administration Regulations -- could subject exports of the virus to restrictions that may hinder vital information sharing or vaccine delivery, the official said.

PHILADELPHIA -- The U.S. government is working through a range of challenges when delivering export control guidance to university researchers, government officials said, including to some colleges that opt out of certain projects rather than risk violating controls. The government is also still running into challenging questions about whether its controls should apply to fundamental research, one official said.

The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, who will be one of the negotiators for the compromise China package, expressed pessimism that a version of the bill can be found that can get a majority vote in both the House and Senate. The Senate passed its version, the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, with 67 votes; the House version, known as the Competes Act, only had one Republican on board.

Japan adjusted the scope of its antidumping duty investigation on hot-dipped galvanized steel wire from China and South Korea and extended the period of the investigation to receive comments on the expanded scope, the Ministry of Finance announced April 28. Since June, the Finance and the Economy, Trade and Industry ministries have been conducting the AD investigation but recently determined the scope needs to be expanded to cover hot-dip galvanized iron wire containing a small amount of boron, according to an unofficial translation. With the expanded scope, the extension until Dec. 13 provides opportunities for interested parties to submit additional evidence with regard to that scope adjustment.

The U.S. and other World Trade Organization members called out China yet again for failing to fully submit its subsidies to the WTO during the April 26-27 meeting of the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, a person with knowledge of the meetings told reporters in an email. The U.S. pointed out that after examining certain financial statements of certain fossil fuel companies in China, it found that the Chinese government granted financial grants totaling over $1.9 billion in 2020 that were not reported to the WTO. Apart from asking China to clarify why these grants were not reported, the U.S. also asked China to clarify whether distant water fishing enterprises are completely tax exempt. In response, China asked the U.S. to look at its relevant enterprise income tax law provisions, which the U.S. found uninstructive. Also during the meeting, other WTO members -- namely, Brazil, Morocco, China and Russia -- brought up complaints about U.S. countervailing duty action. In particular, China blasted the U.S.'s "abusive use" of "adverse facts available" in CVD cases, while Russia said the U.S. continued to use flawed practices resulting in the finding of subsidies where none exist.

The EU laid out a plan to suspend all import duties on Ukrainian exports for one year to aid the Ukrainian economy through its war with Russia, the European Commission announced. In all, the proposal would have the EU lift all import duties, including antidumping and safeguard measures currently in place on Ukrainian steel shipments. The U.K. announced an identical move April 25, offering to cast off all tariffs on goods from Ukraine (see 2204260018). Along with broadcasting its intention to do the same, the commission said that the EU is also taking steps to "facilitate overland goods transport to help get Ukrainian products out into the world."