The Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the fifth negotiating round for the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, held in Malaysia Oct. 15-24, made progress "towards high-standard outcomes" in trade, clean economy and fair economy pillars. "Officials also continued discussions on next steps for the proposed IPEF Supply Chain Agreement (Pillar II) following substantial conclusion of negotiations in May and public release of the text on September 7th," their readout said.
Is it EU "institutional rigidity," as a former assistant U.S. trade representative for Europe, Dan Mullaney, says, or unrealistic asks from the U.S. government delaying a deal on trade in steel and aluminum that could end tariff rate quotas on European exports?
For all the talk of a climate club, where trade among countries inside the club is privileged, panelists at the Niskanen Center said the failure of the U.S. and the EU to reach an agreement on green steel in two years of talking shows how far off that possibility is.
World Trade Organization members participating in the Information Technology Agreement and the ITA Expansion Agreement on Oct. 19 approved Timor-Leste's bid to participate in the agreements, the WTO announced. As a result, the ITA Schedules will be incorporated into Timor-Leste's WTO goods schedule, making up a part of the nation's "final WTO accession package." Per the ITA commitments, after Timor-Leste joints the WTO, the country will eliminate duties on 242 products, amounting to 64% of its ITA-related tariff lines, the WTO said, and the duties on the remaining 114 ITA products will be scrapped on Jan. 1, 2027. As for the ITA Expansion Agreement, Timor-Leste will drop import duties on 240 of 488 tariff lines upon accession, with another 333 tariff lines reduced to zero after three years.
After a meeting between European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President Joe Biden, the two sides publicly acknowledged they wouldn't meet their Oct. 31 deadline to complete a Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum, which is meant to keep out non-market overcapacity from the two markets, as well as privilege trade in green metals between them.
Katrin Kuhlmann, a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University, and Devi Ariyani, the executive director of the Indonesia Service Dialogue Council, both said they hope the World Trade Organization's moratorium on e-commerce duties is extended, during a Peterson Institute for International Economics event on Oct. 18. Although the moratorium has been regularly extended since 1998, a few countries are preparing to introduce tariffs on digitally transferred goods before the moratorium's expiration in March 2024, Cecilia Malmström, a nonresident senior fellow at PIIE, said at the event.
The Census Bureau this week emailed tips on how to address the most frequent messages generated this month in the Automated Export System.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine changed export compliance dramatically, said Howard Mendelsohn, chief client officer for Kharon, "where the onus is on industry like it’s never been before to sort of find a way to be proactive." Mendelsohn, whose firm provides risk intelligence to businesses, spoke at an OCR Services trade compliance conference Oct. 17 in Bethesda, Maryland, outside Washington, D.C. He said exporters have to be proactive on blocking reports and applying for licenses, and importers have to find another supplier.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and BusinessEurope issued a joint statement ahead of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit with President Joe Biden, asking them to "definitively reject protectionism," which the groups said is on the rise, due to "misinformed narratives about industrial decline." She will be in Washington Oct. 20.
The World Customs Organization's Harmonized System Committee will extend its customary five-year review cycle by an additional year, the WCO said in a press release on Oct. 12. This means that the next version of the Harmonized System will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2028.