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.
As the trade conflict between the United States and China continues, three free trade agreements are pressing ahead, including– the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), soon to enter into force, the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (JEEPA), recently signed and which represents 30% of global economic output, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), an agreement that includes both India and China and comprises the largest trading block in the region.
On 18 July 2018, the Official Journal published Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2018/1013 of 17 July 2018 imposing provisional safeguard measures with regard to imports of certain steel products. On 26 March 2018, the Commission published a Notice of Initiation of a safeguard investigation concerning imports of 26 steel product categories (2018/C 111/10) in the Official Journal. The Commission decided to initiate the investigation in the light of sufficient evidence that imports of those products might cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the Union producers concerned. On 28 June, the investigation was extended to two additional product categories. There was also a high risk of further increase of imports resulting from trade diversion due to the measures against imports of steel adopted by the United States under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (‘Section 232’). The 28 product categories (‘the product concerned’ or the ‘product categories concerned’) are all covered by the steel surveillance mechanism introduced by the Commission in May 2016. They are also subject to the US tariff measures under Section 232.
The WTO announced that Members expressed their concerns over possible measures by the United States regarding extra duties on the import of automobiles, including cars, SUVs, vans, light trucks and automotive parts, at the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG) held on 3 and 4 of July. Over 40 members — including the 28 European Union members — took the floor to warn of the “serious disruption” to world markets and the multilateral trading system that may arise as a result of these potential measures, particularly in light of the large proportion of global trade accounted for by these products. The announcement said:
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published the following documents related to WTO disputes in the Federal Register. Although USTR will accept any comments received during the course of the dispute settlement proceedings, you should submit your comment on or before the “Comments Due” date to be assured of timely consideration by USTR.
On May 11, 2018, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice [Docket Number USTR–2018–0011] that India has requested the establishment of a dispute settlement panel under the WTO Agreement in United States Countervailing Measures on Certain Hot-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from India [Dispute Number WT/DS436]. That request may be found at http://www.wto.org/ in a document designated as WT/DS436/18. USTR invites written comments from the public concerning the issues raised in this dispute.