Seventeen senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are asking the U.S. trade representative to reach "an expedited agreement with the European Union" so that tariffs don't return on exported whiskey Jan. 1. That tariff would be 50% under the schedule the EU imposed as retaliation for the Section 232 tariffs on European steel and aluminum exports.
Four Republican senators have called on the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to remove China’s Institute of Forensic Science from the Entity List, saying the easing of trade sanctions on the scientific lab was premature.
South Africa recently submitted paperwork at the World Trade Organization saying it wishes to end the moratorium on charging tariffs on electronic transmissions, arguing that it provides global tech firms with a "distinct unfair tax advantage over local competitors in developing countries," and also deprives countries where those purchases are made of corporate tax revenue. South Africa said the international taxation being considered for tech giants is a useful step, but "will not result in developing countries individually benefiting to any material extent and does not resolve the fundamental problem generated primarily by the lack of digital tariffs which can enable more sustainable promotion of investment in developing countries."
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."
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.
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 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.
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.
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.