The next meeting of the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body will feature a few U.S. antidumping measures, according to a May 18 release from WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Among the American measures, antidumping duties on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan, antidumping and countervailing duties on large residential washers from Korea, and methodologies for establishing antidumping measures involving China will be on the DSB's May 28 meeting agenda. In addition, the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 will come into focus, as the DSB releases its implementation of the recommendations adopted by the body.

The European Union extended countervailing duties on rainbow trout from Turkey after conducting an expiry review, the bloc announced in a May 25 regulatory statement. The CV duties will continue to be imposed on rainbow trout imports (1) live weighing 1, 2 kilograms or less each or (2) fresh, chilled, frozen and/or smoked: in the form of whole fish whether gilled, whether gutted, weighing 1, 2 kg or less each, or with heads off, whether gilled, whether gutted, weighing 1 kg or less each, or in the form of fillets weighing 400 grams or less. Duty rates range from 1.5% to 9.5%, with the highest rate applying to companies not listed.

The day before the first USMCA Free Trade Commission meeting, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, talked about how to strengthen North American supply chains, combat forced labor and climate change, and reform the World Trade Organization.

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.