On March 29th, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced the suspension of all U.S. engagements with Burma (Myanmar) under the 2013 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (“TIFA”), effective immediately. Pursuant to this announcement, the United States will be suspending all government-to-government meetings following the military coup that occurred in February and the related escalation in violence by Burma’s military against its people.
The United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced the continuation of certain Section 301 investigations related to digital services taxes (“DSTs”) and the termination of certain others. USTR originally initiated Section 301 DSTs investigations covering several countries on June 2, 2020 in response to those countries’ implementation or consideration of DSTs, which are taxes on revenues
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) published a notice of product exclusion extensions on March 10, 2021 to extend exclusions from additional Section 301 tariffs for certain medical-care products from China. USTR has extended these product exclusions from March 31, 2021 to September 30, 2021. The product exclusions were previously extended and modified
On March 18, 2021, Katherine Tai was confirmed as the U.S. Trade Representative. Tai will be the first woman of color in this role.
Tai’s nomination hearing focused on a worker and labor-centric trade policy as well as a return to multilateralism, which we believe will include more active participation in the World Trade Organization.
In a joint statement released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”), the U.S. and European Union (“EU”) have agreed to temporarily suspend the additional tariffs from the Large Civil Aircraft Dispute. Goods imported from EU countries, including dairy products and liquors, will temporarily not be subject to the additional 25 percent
The U.S. International Trade Commission (“USITC”) determined in a unanimous vote on February 11, 2021 that imports of fresh, chilled, or frozen blueberries have not increased in quantities sufficient to be a serious cause of injury to the domestic industry. On September 29, 2020, the United States Trade Representative requested that the USITC initiate an
The U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) is indefinitely suspending the Section 301 tariffs on certain handbags and cosmetics from France resulting from the investigation into France’s Digital Services Tax (“DST”). These additional tariffs were announced by USTR in July 2020 and were scheduled to go into effect on January 6, 2021. USTR is suspending the tariffs
As previously reported, since October 18, 2019 the U.S. has imposed additional duties on various European origin goods (including aircraft, certain textiles and wearing apparel, hardware, cheeses, and other agricultural goods) due the ongoing Large Civil Aircraft (LCA) dispute with the European Union (EU).
On December 30, 2020, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced that it is extending certain product-specific exclusions related to the treatment of COVID-19 from the Section 301 tariffs on imports from China until March 31, 2021. On March 25, 2020, the USTR announced that it was seeking comments on the possible exemption of medical goods
United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) announced the very first enforcement action under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (“USMCA”) to address Canada’s tariff-rate quotas (“TRQs”) on imported dairy products, which the USTR alleges are in violation of various USMCA Articles to the detriment of U.S. dairy producers. USTR’s announcement follows complaints from U.S. dairy farmers and Members of Congress received earlier this year over Canada’s use of TRQs. USTR stated in its announcement that it was “disappointed that Canada’s policies have made this first ever enforcement action under the USMCA necessary to ensure compliance with the agreement.”