India recently extended its export restrictions on sugar indefinitely, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report this month. The trade restrictions were scheduled to last through Oct. 31 but have since been extended for an “indefinite period,” the agency said. “The export of sugar under the CXL concession quota with the United Kingdom and the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) with the United States are unaffected.”
The U.S. interpretation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade's Article XXI(b) -- which governs trade moves made for national security -- as being wholly self-judging "is unsupported by the text, context, object and purpose, and negotiating history" of the article, four Akin Gump lawyers said in a working paper under the auspices of the Geneva Graduate Institute Centre for Trade and Economic Integration.
Sri Lanka recently put in place a temporary tariff reduction for imported corn, but USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service expects the move to have minimal impacts on U.S. corn because Indian corn prices are lower. The new duty, imposed under a “Special Commodity Levy,” reduces the tariff on corn from 75 Sri Lankan Rupees per kilogram to 25 per kilogram, or about .076 cent, for about six months from Aug 18.
The EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization members should sanction Iranian airlines and refuse airport access to Iranian aircraft, Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, said in a resolution introduced this week. Noting the U.S. has sanctions in place against Mahan Air, Iran Air, Saha Airlines, Qeshm Air and Qeshm Fars Air, Self said some of those airlines reportedly operate in at least 24 airports across Eurasia, including in NATO and EU countries.
The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee introduced a bill that would require USDA and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to produce annual reports identifying the acts, policies or practices that create significant barriers to exports of U.S. fruits and vegetables or distort their own markets so that U.S. fruits, vegetables, nuts and flowers cannot be competitive.
The Dominican Republic recently activated a safeguard measure to impose a higher tariff rate for imports of chicken leg quarters from the U.S. for the remainder of the year, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a November report. The agency said the country activated the measure under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement after the Dominican Republic imported 2,236 metric tons of the U.S. chicken from Jan. 1 through Oct. 1, exceeding the 1,820 metric ton threshold established under CAFTA-DR for safeguard activation. Those imports will face a 61.38% tariff rate -- an increase from the 23.8% out of quota tariff rate that had been applied -- through Dec. 31.
President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will touch on some trade issues during a planned meeting in California on Nov. 15, but the two leaders won’t delve into specifics, a senior administration official said during a call with reporters last week. The two sides aren’t expecting a “long list of outcomes or deliverables” to result from the meeting, the official said. “The goals here really are about managing the competition, preventing the downside risk of conflict and ensuring channels of communication are open."
Indonesia recently imposed higher import tariffs on certain cosmetics, bicycles, watches, and iron and steel products, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Nov. 6. The new measures will place a 10% to 15% duty on cosmetic imports, a 25% to 40% duty on bicycle imports, a 10% duty on watches and up to a 20% duty on iron and steel products. As part of the changes, Indonesia also is requiring e‑commerce companies and other online vendors to share certain information on imported goods with the country’s Directorate General of Customs and Excise, including the names of the company and seller and the “specifications and quantity of imported goods,” HKTDC said.
As the EU implements its new import restrictions on Russian iron and steel, European companies are starting to ask U.S. exporters whether their products contain those Russian metals, said Scott Gearity, a consultant with the Export Compliance Training Institute. Gearity said most U.S. companies shouldn’t face any legal issues in making that certification, and Bailey Reichelt, a lawyer with Aegis Trade Law, stressed that companies don’t need to include an end-use statement as part of every benign contract, a practice that could scare potential customers that don’t deal in items subject to trade controls.
Two House members from California asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to talk to Turkey about its new retaliatory tariffs on American almonds. In an Oct. 31 letter, Reps. John Duarte (R) and Jim Costa (D), called the tariffs "burdensome" and said they give Australia, Spain, Uzbekistan and Iran an "unjustified competitive advantage over US almonds in the Turkish market."