On January 12, 2021, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register individual determinations regarding whether the Digital Services Taxes (DST) of India, Turkey and Italy are actionable pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. India: USTR has determined that India’s DST is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts US commerce and thus is actionable under Section 301. Based on information obtained during the investigation,…
On December 16, 2020, US Department of the Treasury delivered to Congress the semiannual Report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. Treasury determined that both Vietnam and Switzerland are currency manipulators. For each country, Treasury assessed, based on a range of evidence and circumstances, that at least part of its exchange rate management over the four quarters through June 2020, and particularly foreign exchange intervention, was for…
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that on October 23, the secretariat of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (the “Agreement”) notified all member parties that Mongolia had deposited a letter of acceptance, and completed the Agreement accession procedures, and plans to be in January 2021. On the 1st, mutual tariff reduction arrangements were implemented with relevant members. According to the tariff reduction arrangement, Mongolia will reduce tariffs on 366 tax items, mainly related to aquatic products, vegetables…
On June 2, 2020, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that his office is beginning investigations into digital services taxes that have been adopted or are being considered by a number of our trading partners. The investigations will be conducted under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. This provision gives the USTR broad authority to investigate and respond to a foreign country’s action which may be unfair or discriminatory and negatively affect US Commerce. …
On June 2, 2020, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that his office is beginning investigations [Docket No. USTR-2020-0022] into digital services taxes that have been adopted or are being considered by a number of the US’ trading partners. The investigations will be conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. This provision gives the USTR broad authority to investigate and respond to a foreign country’s action which may be unfair or…
On February 7, 2020, the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a document announcing the country-by-country reallocations of 78,071 MTRV of the fiscal year (FY) 2020 in-quota quantity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for imported raw cane sugar from those countries that stated they do not plan to fill their FY 2020 allocated raw cane sugar quantities. See the notice for country-by-country reallocations.
On May 21, 2019, President Trump signed a Proclamation to Modify the List of Beneficiary Developing Countries Under the Trade Act of 1974 [not yet published in the Federal Register], which terminates the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country, effective June 5, 2019. To reflect this termination, general notes 4(a) and 4(d) and pertinent subheadings of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) are modified as set forth in Annex A…
On 23 February 2019, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade posted the Draft National e-Commerce Policy – India’s Data for India’s Development on its website for stakeholder comment. The Executive Summary states in part:
On March 4, 2019, the US Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer announced (at the direction of President Trump) that the United States intends to terminate India’s and Turkey’s designations as beneficiary developing countries under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program because they no longer comply with the statutory eligibility criteria.
On August 3, 2018, the Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce (BIS) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket No. 180228229-8229-01] amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to formally recognize and implement India’s membership in the Wassenaar Arrangement (Wassenaar or WA). Further, BIS removes India from Country Group A:6 and places it in Country Group A:5.