The U.S. and Japan signed a deal to open Japanese market access to more than $7 billion worth of U.S. agricultural exports, the White House said Sept. 25. The deal -- announced after President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met at the United Nations General Assembly in New York -- is an initial agreement as the two sides continue negotiating a comprehensive trade deal “in the months ahead,” the White House said.
Vietnam is eliminating import tariffs on crude oil products starting Nov. 1, Vietnam's Customs’ mouthpiece CustomsNews said in a Sept. 23 report. The import tariff rate on crude oil is currently 5 percent.
A bipartisan group of senators asked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to secure better access for pecan exporters to India as the two countries negotiate a trade deal. In a Sept. 20 letter, the senators urged Lighthizer to work to remove the “existing barriers” pecan exporters are facing, including a 36 percent Indian import tariff, compared with 10 percent tariffs on pistachios and almonds.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 16-20 in case they were missed.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said tariffs on autos are not related to national security. When asked to respond to news reports that the U.S. and Japan could not finish a deal because the U.S. was not willing to promise to spare Japanese autos from those tariffs, he said, "The president ought to give that assurance and get this show on the road."
Japan will eliminate or reduce tariffs on $7.2 billion of U.S. food and agriculture exports under a mini-deal with the country that the administration says replicates the agricultural access the U.S. would have received if it had joined the Trans Pacific Partnership. The U.S. Trade Representative announced the deal without saying when the agreement will come into effect. It does not require a vote of Congress to be ratified.
The Congressional Research Service issued an updated report on Sept. 13 on retaliatory tariffs and U.S. agriculture, detailing retaliatory tariffs imposed on the U.S. by China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union and more. The 49-page report also includes “key competitors” for China’s agricultural market, which U.S. agricultural sectors have been most affected by the tariffs, and the long- and short-term impacts of the tariffs on U.S. industries and the economy.
The promise of good news for farmers in the U.S.-Japan trade deal is oversold, five Democrats told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as they complained in a letter about how the deal was negotiated without keeping Congress in the loop.
The Commerce Department posted an updated version of its "China's 301 Retaliation Product Scope" that lists U.S. goods that are included in China's retaliatory tariffs. The updated list includes Chinese tariff increases that took effect Sept. 1.
The United Kingdom and Lebanon signed a trade continuity agreement Sept. 19 to ensure the countries trade under current terms after a potential no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31, the U.K. Department for International Trade said in a press release. The agreement would continue "tariff-free trade of industrial products together with liberalisation of trade in agricultural, agri-food and fisheries products," the UKDIT said. The U.K. is already covered by an association agreement between the European Union and Lebanon, but that could change when and if the U.K. leaves the EU with no transition deal in place.