The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is amending an exclusion from Section 301 tariffs to align it with recent changes to the relevant Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading (see 2401020049). The change affects the exclusion under U.S Note 20(ttt)(iii)(27) to subchapter III of Chapter 99, which had covered goods of subheading 2929.90.5090 and now covers goods of subheading 2929.90.5095 for entries on or after Jan. 1.
The International Trade Commission will analyze the export competitiveness of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and India, after a request from the U.S. trade representative. She asked the commission to track the apparel market shares of each of those countries in 2013, 2018 and 2023, and to describe the changing patterns in those market shares, including against other top suppliers of apparel.
Both Asian countries and American businesses had hoped that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework could be a step on the road to lowering tariffs, trade experts said during a webinar on the future of IPEF, but now they're wondering if there will be any economically significant effect at all from talks about trade facilitation, green transition and supply chain resilience.
India and the U.S. should aim for "economically meaningful outcomes" from better customs and trade facilitation, supply chain linkages, trade in high-tech products and trade in critical minerals between the two countries, India's commerce minister and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a joint statement.
Australia's tariff rate quota limits for 2024 for beef, dairy products, avocados, peanuts and tobacco were announced by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in a Federal Register notice released Jan. 8.
Liquidation of imports of remanufactured auto parts from Tecnologia Modificada, a Caterpillar, Inc., subsidiary in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, may resume now that a rapid response labor complaint from the Office of U.S. Trade Representative has been resolved.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that "after careful consultations," she has decided not to interfere with the International Trade Commission's Section 337 decision that Apple infringed on two patents owned by Masimo Corp. and Cercacor Laboratories, Inc. The ITC ruled Oct. 26. Apple last week said it would stop sales of two of its models of the Apple Watch (see 2312180066).
Apparel, which accounts for about 37% of imports covered by Caribbean Basin Initiative and Haiti-specific programs, may no longer support jobs in Haiti if a renewal of at least 10 years isn't passed well ahead of Haiti's HOPE and HELP programs' expiration in October 2025, industry is arguing.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is reallocating 3,217 metric tons raw value of sugar to Fiji, according to a Federal Register notice scheduled to be published Dec. 26. USTR reallocated 223,740 metric tons raw value of sugar Nov. 30 for the FY2024 tariff rate quota, but inadvertently omitted Fiji (see 2311290014).
In a report on how Russia is living up to its World Trade Organization commitments -- a report produced every other year for Congress -- the U.S. trade representative wrote that Russia has expanded import substitution to state-owned enterprises and private enterprises, including a ban on imported equipment.