The World Trade Organization Secretariat, at the UN Summit on Climate Change, recommended that countries lower their import tariffs to increase the uptake of low-carbon technologies, reform environmentally harmful subsidies, facilitate trade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for idling vehicles at the border, and improve coordination of carbon pricing "to reduce policy fragmentation and compliance costs."
Two months away from the first reporting requirements for carbon intensity of certain imports into the EU, not only do many importers not understand how to comply, but even the customs authorities aren't ready, said Vassilis Akritidis, a partner at Crowell who offered a webinar on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism last week.
More than 60 House members, led by senior Ways and Means Committee Democrat Rep. Mike Thompson of California and Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to negotiate an end to China's retaliatory tariffs on American wine, and to negotiate lower tariffs in India and Vietnam, where American wine faces 150% and 50% tariffs, respectively.
The Biden administration should take several steps to boost U.S. agricultural exports, including by negotiating new free trade deals and better eliminating tariff and nontariff barriers, industry executives said during a President’s Export Council meeting this week. They also urged the administration to enforce existing trade agreements and more quickly make progress in reforming the World Trade Organization.
Although strong beef demand in Vietnam has resulted in increased imports over the past few years, including from India and Hong Kong, that hasn't benefited U.S. beef exporters because of high tariff rates, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report this month. The agency said American exporters face “tariff disadvantages” in the Vietnamese market, noting the U.S. is Vietnam’s “only major trading partner” without a free trade deal.
The EU this week adopted a regulation to open its 2024, 2025 and 2026 autonomous tariff quotas for certain fishery products and establish rules for the management of those quotas. The quotas will be granted only for products imported for processing in the EU, and the regulation will suspend or reduce duties for a limited volume of imports for each of those three years. Duties and volumes will be “specific to each product,” the EU said.
Prominent members of the House of Representatives objected to a USMCA panel ruling last week that said Canada's rewrite of its tariff rate quotas for U.S. dairy exports didn't violate the trade agreement (see 2311240002). U.S. farmers thought they would have the opportunity to sell directly to Canadian consumers, but dairy processors in Canada still control access.
The EU this week ratified its free trade deal with New Zealand (see 2307100014), setting up the agreement to take effect after New Zealand’s ratification, which the bloc is expecting in the first or second quarter of 2024. The deal is expected to cut about 140 million euros, or about $150 million, a year in duties for EU companies, the EU said, including by eliminating all tariffs on EU exports to New Zealand. The bloc specifically said EU farmers will have “much better opportunities to sell their produce,” including shipments of pork, wine and sparkling wine, chocolate, sugar confectionery and biscuits. New Zealand exports of dairy products, beef, sheep, ethanol and sweetcorn also will benefit from lower EU duties through tariff rate quotas.
Taiwan recently notified the World Trade Organization that it invoked volume-based special safeguards on imports of other chicken cuts and pork belly, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report this month. USDA said Taiwan exceeded the specified trigger levels for imports of both meats during the first nine months of the year, and Taiwan will impose additional tariffs, “equivalent to an additional one third of the normal duties” of 20% for WTO members, from Sept. 5 until Dec. 31. USDA said Taiwan imported 11,641.1 metric tons of other chicken cuts from January through September, 98% of which came from the U.S.
A USMCA dispute settlement panel ruled in Canada’s favor in a much-awaited second decision on Canada’s dairy tariff rate quotas, according to a report released by the panel on Nov. 24.