House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., said that there will be a renewed bipartisan effort to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act next year. He called AGOA "something that is very beneficial to our U.S. trade policy." But LaHood left the door open to phasing out or changing the third-party fabric provision of AGOA in the 2025 reauthorization.
Jared Cynamon, a former trade attorney at the Commerce Department, has joined Sandler Travis as an associate, according to the law firm and Cyanmon's LinkedIn page. Cynamon spent the past four years at Commerce, where he reviewed antidumping and countervailing duty determinations.
Running a large trade surplus with the U.S. is only one way to draw President-elect Donald Trump's tariff fire, argues a new report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; other ways would be by expecting the U.S. to provide a defense umbrella, enacting digital services taxes or other anti-U.S. regulations, and taking what ITIF called "soft positions toward China."
The Federal Maritime Commission is ending one of its two investigations into new Canadian rules that were thought to have imposed unfair burdens on U.S. vessels, making the announcement after Canada granted exemptions for six ships and took other steps to “temporarily” resolve the issue. The FMC said it’s still moving forward with a separate, broader investigation into whether the Canadian regulations unfairly affect all U.S.-flagged Great Lakes vessels.
The possibility of a double whammy come January consisting of a strike at East and Gulf coast ports and the implementation of President-elect Donald Trump's proposed tariffs (see 2411250034) is making shippers nervous, with the National Retail Federation saying that the scenarios could result in a "continued surge in imports through next spring."
The Fish and Wildlife Service has added three butterfly species from Brazil to the agency's endangered species list, according to a notice. FWS determined that the butterfly species -- the Fluminense swallowtail (Parides ascanius), Harris’ mimic swallowtail (Eurytides [Mimoides] lysithous harrisianus) and Hahnel’s Amazonian swallowtail (Parides hahneli) -- should be extended protections under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. This change is effective in a final rule Jan. 9.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has declared the Penasco least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus atristriatus) of New Mexico an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, according to a notice. The final rule declaring the designation is effective Jan. 9.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the Dec. 9 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The International Trade Commission seeks comments by the close of business on Dec. 18 on its Section 337 investigation on imported power converters (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1370), it said in a notice to be published Dec. 10 in the Federal Register. The complaint was originally filed in 2023 by Vicor Corp. of Massachusetts (see 2307180003) alleging that Taiwanese and Chinese companies imported power converter modules and computing systems that infringe three of Vicor's patents related to power system technologies used in high-density and high-efficiency applications like "high-end" computing. Vicor asked the ITC for a limited exclusion order forbidding entry of the proposed respondents’ infringing products and a cease and desist order.
The International Trade Commission has ended a Section 337 investigation on imported network equipment supporting NETCONF standards (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1391) with a finding of no patent violation, it said in a notice.