The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced tariff schedule modifications set to take effect Jan. 1, 2022, to implement new dairy tariff-rate quotas for the United Kingdom as a result of its withdrawal from the European Union, in a notice published July 6. Notes to chapters 4 and 24 of the tariff schedule are modified to add separate entries for the U.K., with quantities available based on the U.K.’s average proportion of all EU imports for each given TRQ for the 2013-2015 period. The EU’s TRQ quantity for each will be reduced accordingly.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking public comments on the Caribbean Basin Initiative, it said in a July 8 notice. "The Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) invites comments concerning the operation of the CBI, including the performance of each beneficiary country, to assist in preparing the report to Congress on the operation of the CBI," it said. Comments are due Aug. 31.
The U.S. Trade Representative officially suspended the Section 301 tariffs on the European Union and the United Kingdom that were imposed as part of the dispute over large civil aircraft subsidies, it said in a notice released July 8. The U.S. reached deals last month with the U.K. (see 2106170025) and the EU (see 2106150007) to suspend the tariffs for five years. "The beginning of the five-year suspension period is July 4, 2021, with respect to tariffs on goods of the UK, and July 11, 2021, with respect to tariffs on goods of EU member States," the agency said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on July 8 released country-by-country reallocations of unused fiscal year 2021 in-quota amounts for the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar. Reallocated quantities are as follows: Argentina 3,962; Australia 7,648; Belize 1,014; Bolivia 737; Brazil 13,361; Colombia 2,211; Costa Rica 1,381; Dominican Republic 16,217; Ecuador 1,014; El Salvador 2,396; Eswatini (Swaziland) 1,474; Fiji 829; Guatemala 4,423; Guyana 1,106; Honduras 921; India 737; Jamaica 1,014; Malawi 921; Mauritius 1,106; Mozambique 1,199; Nicaragua 1,935; Panama 2,672; Peru 3,778; South Africa 2,119; Thailand 1,290; Zimbabwe 1,106.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Mexican Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier and Canadian International Trade Minister Mary Ng will meet in Mexico City July 7, to continue the dialogue they started online at the Free Trade Commission meeting in May (see 2105180059).
Government representatives who oversee labor issues from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico held the first meeting of the USMCA Labor Council, and discussed both the implementation of Mexico's labor law reform and a complaint about the treatment of Mexican migrant workers in the U.S., and how abuses of migrant workers could be avoided in the future, whether through education and oversight through U.S. government agencies, or a better way of running seasonal work visas.
Taiwan and the U.S. had their first official meeting under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement since 2016, and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Terry McCartin praised Taiwan for improving its enforcement of trade secrets protections, and its plan to change its medical device approval process.
A senior U.S. Chamber of Commerce official submitted follow-up comments on rapid response petitions, complaining that a petition is in a state that is not yet required to complete its ratification or rejection of union contracts, and that an alleged violation happened in part before July 1, 2020, when the USMCA went into force. The Chamber said this petition that comes before the deadline “carries the potential to set a dangerous precedent.” Glenn Spencer, senior vice president in the employment policy division, wrote to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative June 23, saying that “[t]he possibility of imposing remedies on a facility for failure to comply with the USMCA before the USMCA entered into force is a violation of the right to due process and should not be tolerated.” He also said that the owner of a facility that is being investigated for a denial of rights “must be included in consultation and remediation efforts resulting from a review.”
Canada has requested a state-to-state dispute panel over the U.S. safeguard tariffs against Canadian solar cells and panels, because under USMCA, and NAFTA before it, safeguards are not supposed to apply in North America if the exports from either Canada or Mexico are not contributing to serious injury in the domestic market. The International Trade Commission said Canada was not contributing to the harm to the U.S. solar manufacturing industry. Several members of the Washington state delegation to Congress have also argued Canada should not be a target, both for that reason, and because exempting Canada could add to jobs in solar manufacturing in their state (see 2106090066).
The United Kingdom and the U.S. announced an agreement in the Airbus-Boeing dispute in line with the previously announced agreement between the U.S. and the European Union (see 2106150021). In the agreement, both sides will keep 25% tariffs off a variety of products and 10% tariffs off aircraft for at least five years, and will use a working group to hash out any disagreements on whether either government's support for their large aircraft maker is distorting sales. They also will work together to counter Chinese or other countries' distortions, the June 17 statement said.