A former top trade negotiator in Mexico, Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, said he doesn't think the review of the USMCA will be about fine-tuning or technical changes to the trade pact.
Canada this week launched a 30-day consultation period as it decides whether to impose additional duties or take other measures against Chinese electronic vehicle imports. The consultations, which began July 2 and will run through Aug. 1, “seek views on potential policy responses,” Canada said, including new tariffs on a range of battery, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric vehicles.
The free trade agreement between China and Serbia will take effect July 1, China's Ministry of Commerce announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the deal will scrap tariffs on 90% of goods, of which over 60% will be eliminated July 1. The deal also includes chapters on "rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade, trade remedies, dispute settlement, intellectual property protection, investment cooperation, competition, etc.," the ministry said.
The chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere told a State Department official last week that she’s concerned the Biden administration plans to remove Cuba from the state sponsors of terrorism list.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin, D-Md., and three other Democratic senators plan to introduce a bill to transfer authority over small arms exports from the Commerce Department back to the State Department, Cardin’s office announced June 21. The legislation is intended to stem the flow of U.S.-made weapons to drug cartels, gangs and other violent groups across the Western Hemisphere. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, introduced a similar bill last year (see 2312080066). The Trump administration transferred small arms export authority from State to Commerce in 2020 (see 2001170030).
The Federal Maritime Commission recently reminded carriers about the requirements they must meet to maintain their status before the commission as a vessel-operating common carrier (VOCC), warning they may face penalties if they fail to meet those requirements. The FMC said carriers publishing automated tariffs as VOCCs must “operate at least one vessel in common carriage in the foreign commerce of the United States to maintain their status.” Companies offering common carriage but that don’t operate at least one vessel are considered non-vessel-operating common carriers, the commission said, and must follow the licensing, registration and financial responsibility requirements for NVOCCs. “Operating as an NVOCC and failing to meet all relevant requirements may result in a civil monetary penalty.”
Canada's Trade Minister Mary Ng, under questions from parties to the left and right of her Liberal party, as well as the Québécois party, said the fact that there are outstanding disagreements between Canada and the U.S. on U.S. trade remedies on softwood lumber, on auto rules of origin and on Canadian dairy import restrictions does not mean that Canada will get big-footed in the free trade review.
The next administration should look to raise criminal penalties for trade theft, broaden the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and refocus its export controls on military technologies to better compete with China, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said this week. ITIF also said the U.S. should push for a new “techno-economic alliance” of key trading partners and develop a new multilateral export control regime focused on semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
A Costa Rican court on June 4 restored lower 3.5% to 4% tariffs in the country on imports of milled and rough rice, overturning an April court ruling that had put higher 35% tariffs in place (see 2404250057). The decision “dramatically erodes” preferential access for U.S. rice exports under a tariff-rate quota negotiated in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, the Foreign Agricultural Service said in a June 12 report. “Earlier hopes for higher U.S. rough rice exports to Costa Rica in 2024 evaporated before a single shipment could reach Costa Rican ports.” However, FAS doesn’t expect the “stunning reversal to be the final word in this political tug-of-war,” as the lower tariffs “pose an existential threat to the majority of Costa Rican rice producers.”
The European Commission on June 12 provisionally set countervailing duties on Chinese electric vehicles, though there could still be changes before the provisional rates are posted, no later than July 4. The day after the publication, importers would need a guarantee to cover the amount of duties, but the duties themselves would not be collected until the definitive duties are set, which could be as much as four months later. If a majority of countries in the EU vote against the duties, they wouldn't be levied.