The World Trade Organization case that the U.S. opened against China on intellectual property (see 1804090020) has been suspended. The announcement, published June 14 by the WTO, gave no indication as to why the U.S. asked the dispute panel to pause in its consideration of the case. Under WTO rules, a case can be suspended for 12 months.

In the June 14 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

U.S. and European Union negotiators have reached a deal to increase U.S. exports of beef to the EU, the European Commission said in a June 13 press release. Under the agreement in principle, the EU will allocate 35,000 tons of its beef tariff-rate quota to U.S. exporters, with the remainder of the TRQ allocated to all other exporting countries. The increase will be phased in over a seven-year period, the release said.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of June 14 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Japan’s Center for Information on Security Trade Control (CISTEC) has added Huawei to its Chaser List of sanctioned companies, according to a recent report from Nikkei. The non-profit’s list is not binding, but it is used by Japanese exporters to avoid potential pitfalls, so Huawei’s listing could cause Japanese companies to scale back business with Huawei, the report said. The inclusion was likely automatic after Huawei’s addition to the U.S. Entity List, it said. The Chaser List includes companies sanctioned by the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations, among others.

The Department of Justice indicted a group of alleged elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn traffickers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said in a June 13 news release. The indictment names four individuals, two of whom were arrested in Uganda or Senegal, while two Kenyans "remain fugitives." Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said "the alleged enterprise, responsible for the illegal slaughter of dozens of rhinos and more than 100 elephants, was as destructive to protected species as it was lucrative." DOJ said the horns and ivory involved were valued at more than $7 million.

Canada will try to "move in tandem" with Mexico and the U.S. as legislatures in the three countries work to ratify the replacement for NAFTA, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters June 13. Freeland, who was in Washington to talk about ratification of the trade pact, said: "We think of it as a kind of Goldilocks approach, not too hot, not too cold, we’re not going to go too fast, we’re not going to go too slow. It does mean we are going to be spending a lot of time talking with our American counterparts to get that pacing right, and I do want to say, our excellent ambassador is here, David MacNaughton. The embassy is working extremely hard on this issue and spending a lot of time on the Hill, meeting with Democrats, with Republicans both to help people understand here how the Canadian legislative process works and also to get a better understanding of where the U.S. is and where individual members of Congress and senators are."

Before the U.S.-China trade war began, all countries that exported goods to China faced an average 8 percent tariff, according to a recent analysis from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. But now, U.S. exports to China are taxed on average at 20.7 percent, while German, Asian and Canadian producers are facing an average tariff of 6.7 percent.

Tariffs Hurt the Heartland sent a letter to President Donald Trump June 13 saying that he should push China to change its trade practices, but said, "broadly applied tariffs are not an effective tool to change China’s unfair trade practices." The letter, signed by 520 companies and 141 associations, said, "We remain concerned about the escalation of tit-for-tat tariffs. We know firsthand that the additional tariffs will have a significant, negative and long-term impact on American businesses, farmers, families and the U.S. economy."

The World Customs Organization issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​​