After a joint statement from the Treasury Department and the State Bank of Vietnam saying the two sides have resolved U.S. concerns over Vietnamese currency policy, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she commends Vietnam's commitment to address U.S. concerns in that matter. Vietnam said it does not manipulate its currency for competitive advantage, but rather manages its exchange rate to control inflation and maintain macroeconomic stability, but it will make its actions more transparent, and will allow the dong to move with market fundamentals as long as macroeconomic stability can continue.

The Treasury Department and the State Bank of Vietnam announced July 19 that they have “reached agreement to address Treasury’s concerns about Vietnam’s currency practices as described in Treasury’s Report to Congress on the Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States.” While the news release does not explicitly say this resolves the Section 301 investigation over currency at the U.S. Trade Representative, it does say, “Treasury will inform other U.S. government agencies that it has reached agreement with the SBV to address Treasury’s concerns about Vietnam’s currency practices.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's July 13 decision in favor of President Donald Trump's Section 232 tariff increase for Turkish steel past the 105-day deadline set by statute may be a serious setback for Turkish steel exporters (see 2107130059), but what it means for the remaining litigation challenging the president's authority under Section 232, Section 301 or any other statute granting the executive tariff powers is less clear, lawyers said in the days following the decision.

The American Apparel and Footwear Association asked the Biden administration to bring businesses, shippers and port authorities to the table to find short-term solutions to the shipping crisis.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Opposing sides in the Section 301 litigation appeared from Thursday’s status conference at the U.S. Court of International Trade to be inching toward a compromise that would spare Customs and Border Protection the administrative burden of complying with the court's July 6 preliminary injunction (PI) order freezing liquidation of many thousands of unliquidated customs entries with Lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure. The court called the conference to gauge progress in creating the order's “repository” for importers to seek the suspension of entries due to be liquidated during a 28-day temporary restraining order period that expires Aug. 2.

Opposing sides in the Section 301 litigation appeared from the July 15 status conference at the U.S. Court of International Trade to be inching toward a compromise that would spare CBP the administrative burden of complying with the court's July 6 preliminary injunction (PI) order freezing liquidation of many thousands of unliquidated customs entries with lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure. The court called the conference to gauge progress in creating the order's "repository" for importers to seek the suspension of entries due to be liquidated during a 28-day temporary restraining order period that expires Aug. 2.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Seventy-five trade groups, including the American Apparel and Footwear Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Oudoor Industry Association, are telling U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that Vietnamese exports should not face tariffs over either currency manipulation or environmental abuses.

A PricewaterhouseCoopers trade and tax expert told an audience at the U.S. Fashion Industry Association Virtual Washington Trade Symposium that while the prospect of trade liberalization in the next few years is low, he does not think that threatened tariffs on apparel and other goods from European countries, Turkey and India will be levied in November, in retaliation for digital services taxes. Scott McCandless, who spoke July 14 at the virtual conference, said that although it will be "a complicated dance both internationally and domestically" to arrive at an agreement on the intertwined issues of minimum corporate taxes and digital services taxes, he thinks it's more likely than not that Congress will pass a tax bill this fall that would give countries the right to levy taxes on multinationals that do business in their countries. If that happens, he said, "The DSTs likely go away, and the proposed tariffs on countries that have DSTs will go away as well."