The European Union’s list of $20 billion in U.S. exports that could get hit with retaliatory tariffs is heavy on fishery and agricultural products and food, including wines and spirits, but also includes goods found elsewhere in the tariff schedule. That includes raw materials and chemicals, including coal, some medical products, plastics, travel goods and other bags and containers, cotton, tractors and games.
Algeria recently lifted an import ban it imposed in 2018 on about 850 products, replacing it with temporary safeguard duties on more than 1,000 food and industrial goods, according to an April 12 notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. About 60 percent of those goods are food products, the notice said, with most of them being “processed and high value products.” While many of the goods U.S. exporters send to Algeria -- including “bulk and intermediate commodities” such as wheat, barley, corn, rice and soybeans -- are not included on Algeria’s temporary safeguard list, the list does include “tree nuts,” a “key” U.S. export to Algeria, the notice said. Algeria imported “an average of $33 million of tree nuts (almonds, walnuts and pistachios) from the United States” over the 2009-2017 calendar years, the notice said. The safeguard duties list shows “tree nuts are subject to 30 percent additional tax [i.e., the safeguard duty] to be added to the existing 30 percent custom duties plus the 19 percent of Value-Added Tax (VAT),” the notice said.
In the April 16 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Canada revised its list of steel and aluminum goods from the U.S. exempted from tariffs on the products that were imposed in response to U.S. Section 232 tariffs on the metals, the Department of Finance Canada said on its website. Among the changes are nearly 100 new items on the Schedule 3 list, which is "limited to specifically listed importers, for specified periods and subject to applicable conditions as prescribed." The changes became effective April 15, it said.
Japan’s Ministry of Finance announced tariff rate quotas for certain dairy imports for the Japanese fiscal year that runs from April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, according to an April 10 notice from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. The TRQs cover “natural cheese for processing, skimmed milk powder, evaporated milk, butter and butteroil, and certain whey products, ” the notice said. Among several changes are those affecting imports of natural cheese used in processed cheese: Each Japanese importer is permitted to import natural cheese tariff-free up to 2.5 times “the volume of domestic cheese it uses for the production of processed cheese,” the notice said.
Canada will keep in place the safeguard tariffs on five categories of steel until April 28 despite a Canadian International Trade Tribunal ruling that didn't recommend safeguard tariffs on those goods (see 1904040051), the Canada Border Services Agency said in a notice. "In accordance with Canadian law, where the CITT does not recommend final safeguards, provisional safeguards remain in effect for 200 days from when the Order imposing provisional safeguards was made," CBSA said. "The CITT has not recommended final safeguards on imports of concrete reinforcing bar, energy tubular products, hot-rolled sheet, pre-painted steel and wire rod; as such, provisional safeguards on these goods will remain in effect up to and including April 28, 2019."
SAN ANTONIO -- Non-vessel operators (NVOs) should be working with their customers to minimize any surprises coming from the implementation of revised International Maritime Organization sulfur emissions standards in 2020, said transportation industry experts during a panel discussion at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference on April 16.
The European Union has assembled a list of approximately $20 billion worth of imports from the U.S. that could face higher tariffs if a World Trade Organization arbitrator rules that the EU is entitled to that much compensation due to trade-distorting subsidies for Boeing's aircraft manufacturing.
The U.S.-Egypt Trade and Investment Council discussed the need for Egyptian labor reforms, and the U.S.'s desire that Egypt improve intellectual property protection, implement the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement and that Egypt strengthen its border enforcement. The readout of the meeting, provided by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative late April 12, said the two countries are looking to promote greater reciprocal market access for agricultural and industrial goods. "In this vein, the United States and Egypt are collaborating on the development of scientific, risk-based food safety practices consistent with international guidelines of the Codex Alimentarius Commission," USTR said. The U.S. praised Egypt for relaxing domestic ownership requirements for express shipping companies and Egypt's decision to accept U.S. motor vehicle safety standards. Between the Generalized System of Preferences and Qualifying Industrial Zones programs, about $1 billion of Egyptian exports to the U.S. enter duty free, USTR said.
In the April 11 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted (see 1904120033 for notices from April 12):