Australia plans to provide federal funding to modernize its trade system, reduce certain costs for agricultural importers and boost export growth, KPMG said in a May alert. The country will spend $37.4 million over three years to improve its trade system and “hopefully” provide industry with a “single window to government,” KPMG said. It will also spend $5 million to “reform and streamline” its antidumping regime, $411.4 million to “protect” the agriculture industry by reducing “regulatory timeframes,” and $198.2 million over four years to support export growth and diversification. KPMG called the measures a “welcomed” budget increase for Australian importers and exporters.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in her second day of testimony on Capitol Hill, heard again and again from members of Congress who are hearing from companies in their districts that they want Section 301 tariff exclusions back. She heard repeatedly that the 9% countervailing duties on Canadian lumber are making a bad situation worse. And she heard that the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and Generalized System of Preferences benefits program should be renewed. On each topic, both Democrats and Republicans shared concerns, though on GSP, Republicans only spoke of the cost to importers, while Democrats worried about the effects of GSP on the eligible countries. Tai testified for more than four hours in front of the House Ways and Means Committee on May 13.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai generally avoided being pinned down on timing as she was asked about rekindling trade negotiations with the United Kingdom and Kenya, the pause on tariffs on European imports, and a solution for steel overcapacity that could make way for the lifting of Section 232 tariffs.

The European Commission initiated an expiry review of the antidumping duty order on imports of certain ring binder mechanisms from China and extended it to Vietnam and Laos, the commission said May 11. Acting on the request of producer Ring Alliance Ringbuchtechnik GmbH, which called for the review on behalf of over 25% of the European ring binder mechanism industry, the EC will review entries of the subject goods in 2020 to determine if the antidumping duties should be extended. The product is currently classified under Combined Nomenclature code 8305.10.00.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction for Chinese big data processing technology company Luokung Technology Corp., temporarily blocking the company's designation as a Chinese military company. Judge Rudolph Contreras issued the injunction in a May 5 ruling, finding it likely Luokung would prevail in its case against the designation. The publicly traded Chinese tech giant claims that the Communist Chinese Military Company (CCMC) designation issued by the Department of Defense was made in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, was arbitrary and capricious, and that the evidence in hand was not substantial enough to support a finding of state control over the company.

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade decided to continue collecting antidumping duties on certain aluminum products from China, following a review of the antidumping policy, Vietnam's trade-related news agency CustomsNews said in a May 3 report. The aluminum products will be subject to a duty rate ranging from 4.39% to 35.58% -- up from a floor of 2.49% when the duties were implemented on Sept. 28, 2020.

Turkey recently removed its antidumping duty on U.S. cotton imports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in an April 29 report. The 3% duty, removed last month, was imposed in 2016. USDA said U.S. cotton exporters will see a “slight increase” in market share in Turkey.

Even as the U.S. and the European Union work privately to resolve their differences over subsidies to Airbus and Boeing, a U.S. representative at the World Trade Organization complained that the EU provided no status update on coming into compliance over Airbus subsidies. The EU said that the measures it took in August 2020 (see 2008280051) were more than enough to comply with a WTO ruling, according to a Geneva trade official.

South Africa recently announced plans to review its tariff structure for poultry as part of a broader plan to reduce imports and support its local poultry industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported April 22. In its review, South Africa will consider introducing “specific” rather than ad valorem duties, simplifying its tariff structure by reducing the number of tariff lines and imposing specific anti-dumping measures. Although the South African government and industry have “rallied” behind the plan, not all are convinced the strategy will solve the “structural” issues within the country’s poultry sector, USDA said. Despite recent measures to raise import duties on poultry products and impose antidumping duties on several trading partners, USDA said South African poultry producers “haven’t been able to produce enough poultry that will be sufficient to supplement imports and meet all the domestic demand.”

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai heard many bipartisan complaints about the pain of both Section 301 tariffs and Europe's retaliatory tariffs in response to steel tariffs, but stood her ground on both during a hearing in front of a Senate Appropriations subcommittee responsible for funding the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.