As U.S. and Kenya officials negotiate the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership, they are holding a virtual stakeholder listening session at 9 a.m. East Africa Time on June 7. Those who wish to attend should email MBX.USTR.IAPE@USTR.eop.gov by 4 p.m. East Africa Time on June 6.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, when asked about the U.S. views on reviving dispute settlement at the World Trade Organization, said that countries need to reflect on how the previous system provided incentives for the U.S. and EU to "continue fighting for almost 20 years about state support for Boeing and Airbus, caused us to fight with each other, and pick at each other while the PRC [People's Republic of China] built up its own large civil aircraft industry under our noses."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is publishing a request for comments on the administrative burden of applying for Section 301 exclusions for manufacturing equipment. The comments will be due by July 30.
Liquidation of imported fabricated steel components from Servicios Industriales González in Nuevo Leon will resume, as the U.S. is satisfied with remediation at the facility after a USMCA rapid response labor complaint.
Eleven workers were rehired at Minera Tizapa, and the mining company will bargain with the new union, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative and Labor Department announced, as a result of a rapid response labor complaint. The company had paid a bonus only to workers associated with the old union; as a result of this settlement, that bonus was paid to 249 other workers.
The U.S. has asked Mexico to review whether workers at the Volkswagen de México, S.A. de C.V. facility in Cuautlancingo, Puebla, are being denied their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced May 28.
Nelson Cunningham, the administration's choice for deputy U.S. trade representative for the Western Hemisphere, Europe, the Middle East, labor and the environment, has had his nomination withdrawn. The position has been empty for more than six months.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will hold a virtual listening session about negotiations in the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership on May 16 at 10 a.m. Stakeholders who would like to attend should email MBX.USTR.IAPE@USTR.eop.gov by 6 p.m. May 15.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai issued a statement of disappointment more than a week after Mexico announced that a panel decision had agreed with its argument that labor violations at a zinc mine in San Martín were not subject to the USMCA rapid response labor mechanism, because they occurred before USMCA replaced NAFTA (see 2404260055).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments, requests to testify and written testimony on which countries should be included in the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Comments are due June 6, ahead of a June 27 hearing, at regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2024-0006. Parties may ask for the removal of any of the 32 countries currently covered by the AGOA trade preference, or argue for the reinstatement of countries that have been removed from the program, or have never been part of it, such as Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda or Zimbabwe.