The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is starting to review the eligibility of certain imports from Nepal for preferential tariff treatment, USTR said (here). The review is a result of authority granted through the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (see 1603010043). The law authorizes the White House and USTR to begin consideration of extending duty-free treatment to certain goods from Nepal of HTS headings 4202, 4203, 5701, 5702, 5703, 5705, 6117, 6214, 6216, 6217, 6301, 6308, 6504, 6505 and 6506, subject to certain conditions.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will on March 18 implement a nine-year interim rule that will establish a more flexible petition process to supplement the normal yearly cycle request for public comments on whether a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country is meeting the eligibility criteria and mandates of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), USTR said (here). The Trade Preferences Extension Act (TPEA) directed the President to set up a process by which any person at any time can file a petition with USTR regarding the compliance of any AGOA beneficiary with the eligibility requirements of AGOA and the Trade Act of 1974. If USTR receives a petition outside of the normal review cycle that indicates the presence of “exceptional circumstances,” the AGOA Implementation Subcommittee will consider whether there is an adequate premise for an out-of-cycle review and make recommendations to the Trade Policy Staff Committee, which will then advise the U.S. Trade Representative. The TPEA extended AGOA until Sept. 30, 2025, when the interim rule will expire.
The U.S. and Peru agreed to remove trade barriers for U.S. beef exports to the country that have been in place for the last 13 years, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman announced (here). While U.S. beef and beef product exports to Peru have spiked since the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) entered into force in 2009, they have at the same time been “hampered” after Peru installed “burdensome certification requirements” in 2003, USTR said. Vilsack and his team secured the agreement, termed the “export verification program,” on his trade and investment mission to the country. Through a bilateral exchange of letters, the U.S. and Peru agreed to changes in certification statements that will allow beef and beef products from all federally inspected U.S. establishments to be eligible for export to Peru. Under the previous requirements, eligibility applied to beef and beef products only from facilities that participated in the Agriculture Department’s Agricultural Marketing Service Export Verification programs.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will reallocate 86,533 metric tons raw value (MTRV) of the original tariff-rate quota amounts for raw cane sugar (see 1507140016), after countries were unable to fill their fiscal 2016 allocated quantities, USTR said (here). The reallocations are based on historical shipment statistics and will become effective March 8.
Most domestic footwear manufacturers indicated their support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman March 7 (here), adding another major endorsement of the pact from the U.S. footwear and apparel industry. The American Apparel and Footwear Association and Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America announced their support for the agreement earlier this year (see 1602010017 and 1601130010). The heads of Wolverine Worldwide, H.H. Brown Shoe Company, Elan-Polo, and LaCrosse Footwear said in the letter that TPP will add new jobs in retail and port logistics, trucking, and warehousing. The executives said U.S. footwear tariffs, which average over 10 percent and can reach as high as 67.5 percent, only serve as an extra supply chain cost and a hidden tax on U.S. consumers. High international tariffs from countries like Japan inhibit the companies’ ability to export shoes to new consumers, the executives said. “We strive to make the most innovative products and provide the greatest value to consumers, but struggle with a complex and outdated tariff system here in the U.S. and abroad,” the business leaders said. TPP would provide $450 million in savings in the first year of implementation and $6 billion throughout the first decade, and would lower trade barriers, which could translate to “meaningful growth” in footwear exports, they said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Commerce Department, and “other U.S. Government agencies” will on April 12 convene a public hearing on the global steel industry situation and its effects on the U.S. steel industry and market, USTR said (here). In addition to China, whose steel exports have risen 26 percent between 2014 and 2015, EU, India, South Korea and Brazil steel production is affecting the world market and entering the U.S. as well, USTR said. The hearing will not explore any ongoing AD/CVD investigations or administrative reviews.
After a long hiatus, U.S. meat products hit store shelves in South Africa recently, which could equate to an additional $160 million in yearly exports from the U.S., U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on a conference call March 2. Froman was joined by Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Chris Coons, D-Del., who worked alongside USTR during negotiations, using the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as leverage to open up the South African market to U.S. products. “This was a team effort,” Isakson said. “We used the African Growth and Opportunity Act, its extension, to be a platform from which we tried to negotiate a favorable outcome for domestic poultry in the United States. And the end result is that’s exactly what happened."
The U.S. needs to "to take all actions necessary" to address a recent spike in the number of counterfeit footwear products, the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America said to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as part of the agency's Special 301 Subcommittee hearing on March 1. The brands and products of the FDRA's member companies "support thousands of American jobs -- jobs that are put at risk by counterfeiting and piracy,” said the group's president Matthew Priest in a news release. “Seizures of counterfeit footwear increased by 356% during the latest three-year reporting period, and footwear went from being the twelfth most-seized product for IP violations in the world to the sixth -- a stunning increase over a three year period.” The USTR each year identifies "countries that deny adequate and effective protection of intellectual property protection," and recently received written stakeholder comments on the issue.
The U.S. and EU made "significant advances in the regulatory area" last week during the latest round of negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty in Brussels, as both parties hope to reach "an advanced stage of text consolidation across the board" by July, narrowing negotiations to the most sensitive issues in hopes of concluding negotiations by the end of 2016, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement released Feb. 29 (here). The U.S. and EU progressed in hashing out common objectives they want to achieve in the automobile, pharmaceutical, and medical device sections of the deal, and the U.S. put forth "substantive proposals" on customs and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and rules of origin, USTR said. The office reiterated that it seeks an elimination on all tariffs between the U.S. and EU, despite the two parties agreeing to an elimination of only 97 percent of tariffs during the last TTIP negotiating round in October. "We want to finish this year, but we do not favor an 'early harvest' or a 'T-TIP light,'" USTR said. "We want an ambitious, comprehensive and high standard agreement."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked Peru to verify that a 2015 timber shipment from that country to the U.S. complied with Peruvian laws and regulations, USTR said (here). “Today’s announcement is an important step forward in our shared commitment to combat illegal logging, which threatens our environment and the legitimate businesses that are abiding by the rules,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Peru as it conducts this verification.” The move drew praise from Congressional Democrats, including Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, Ore., and House Ways and Means Ranking Member Sandy Levin, Mich.