U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, Brazilian Minister of External Relations Mauro Vieira and Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade Armando Monteiro, on March 30 discussed the countries’ trade agendas and the global overcapacity of steel, USTR said (here). The official meeting constituted the first ever ministerial-level gathering of the U.S.-Brazil Commission on Economic and Trade Relations, USTR said. Brazil will host the next commission meeting in 2017.
The U.S.-Tunisia Trade and Investment Council held its sixth session on March 22 in Washington to explore ways to boost trade and investment between the two countries, including greater Tunisian use of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said (here). The Tunisian delegation indicated its intent to ratify the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of the year and its plans to become an observer to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, USTR said. The two parties plan to meet in Tunis in 2017 to assess progress on their bilateral initiatives. Tunisia is a leading exporter of olive oil and dates to the U.S. under GSP, but some of those dates under subheading 0804.10.60 are set to lose GSP eligibility on July 1 absent a presidential waiver (see 1602290031), as competitive needs limitation (CNL) waivers on that subheading were pending as of Feb. 23. USTR didn't comment.
Several lawmakers called for stronger U.S. government enforcement efforts to protect the domestic steel industry in comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (here) filed ahead of a public hearing on the matter. The International Trade Commission is scheduled to hold the hearing on global and U.S. steel industries on April 12 (see 1603030003). More than 100 U.S. lawmakers, industry executives and employees, association representatives, and other stakeholders submitted comments in response the request for comments from the USTR, Commerce Department, and other U.S. government agencies.
Senior Obama Administration officials pushed the anticipated national security benefits they expect the Trans-Pacific Partnership will provide during a call with reporters on March 29. During the call, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Christman, who now serves as Potomac Research Group’s senior national security analyst and previously served as an assistant for the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the Administration, said that TPP is crucial in barring China from encroaching on U.S. interests and engagement in the Asia-Pacific region. If TPP is not ratified, “it’d be kicking the teeth for our friends and allies who have extended themselves to sign up to the high-standard goals that TPP represents,” Christman said. Failure to seal the U.S. commitment to ratification could also pose strategic and diplomatic setbacks, as fellow TPP members are expecting the U.S. to follow through, he said.
A group of nearly one hundred companies and associations called for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to add all eligible travel goods to the duty-free import list for all Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) beneficiary countries in a March 25 letter to USTR Director for GSP Aimee Larsen (here). Industry urged USTR to add 29 HTS subheadings for GSP duty-free treatment during a public hearing earlier this month (see 1603040042). Lower duty costs for U.S. travel goods companies should create U.S. jobs, pass savings on to consumers, and spur product innovation, the letter says. “Because the vast majority of travel goods sold in the United States are imported from just one GSP-ineligible country, designating these articles as eligible for the full range of GSP countries would further diversify sourcing, leading to job creation in communities throughout the developing world,” said the coalition, which includes several broker groups, the American Apparel & Footwear Association, the U.S. Fashion Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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.
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 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.