The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released an extensive critique of the appellate body at the World Trade Organization. But the administration offered no proposals for what other countries could do to satisfy it so that it would allow the appellate body to be rejuvenated. Currently, there is no quorum for the body, so it cannot hear appeals. Many of the complaints are about how the WTO has ruled on antidumping and countervailing duty cases in the U.S. -- the report mentions “zeroing,” a method used in antidumping, nearly 100 times. The report said, “The United States is publishing this Report -- the first comprehensive study of the Appellate Body’s failure to comply with WTO rules and interpret WTO agreements as written -- to examine and explain the problem, not dictate solutions.”
In the Feb. 5-6 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade released a guidance Feb. 6 on its trade remedies investigations process after the U.K. leaves the European Union. The U.K. clarified that its Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate (TRID) will investigate new cases of dumped and subsidized imports once the U.K. leaves the EU Customs Union, which will allow the U.K. to issue trade remedies to “protect UK industries.” During the Brexit transition period, TRID will perform “transition reviews into current EU trade remedy measures which are relevant to UK industries,” the guidance says. The guidance provides more details on that process, how the UK will assess injuries to UK industries and how it will consider “possible causes of injury.”
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.
A letter from the Mexican government obtained by Reuters reassures local stakeholders that seasonal antidumping cases against Mexican produce will bring retaliation against U.S. agricultural exports. The letter was sent Jan. 27 to a trade group for Mexican agricultural exporters. The president of that trade group told Reuters that if America targets Mexican mangoes, tomatoes or berries, “U.S. exports like yellow corn, wheat and pork could be retaliated against.”
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade released on Jan. 29 a notice to importers about the current range of European Union measures in force on steel. The guidance includes information on EU legislation during and after the Brexit transition period, including EU definitive safeguard measures on steel, EU tariff-rate quota review findings, EU antidumping and anti-subsidy measures in place against steel and aluminum and EU countermeasures against U.S. steel and aluminum tariff increases. The guidance also includes an annex containing product categories that are subject to safeguards.
In the Jan. 23-28 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
In the Jan. 17-21 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The European Union’s antidumping and countervailing duties on biodiesel from the U.S. are set to expire Sept. 16, 2020, unless EU producers file a written request for an expiry review by June 16, the European Commission said in a pair of notices. “This request must contain sufficient evidence that the expiry of the measures would be likely to result in a continuation or recurrence of dumping [or subsidisation] and injury. Should the Commission decide to review the measures concerned, importers, exporters, representatives of the exporting country and Union producers will then be provided with the opportunity to amplify, rebut or comment on the matters set out in the review request,” the notice said.
Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows: