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.
On April 27, 2018, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice announcing the initiation of country practice reviews [Docket Numbers USTR-2018-0006, 2018-007, and 2018-008] regarding compliance with the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) eligibility criteria of India, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan. These country practice reviews are undertaken on the recommendation of the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) pursuant to 15 C.F.R. 2007.0(f) to determine whether the 3 current laws and practices of India, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan meet the GSP eligibility criteria. These reviews are the result of country eligibility petitions submitted by interested stakeholders and an assessment of the 25 Asian and Pacific Island GSP beneficiary countries conducted by the GSP Subcommittee.
The Indian Director General of Foreign Trade, Mr Alok Vardhan Chaturvedi, has called upon industry to introduce internal compliance programs (ICP) for export controls. Â
As you may recall, early last year, President Trump issued two presidential memoranda instructing the U.S. Commerce Department to initiate an investigation into the national security implications of steel imports and aluminum imports into the United States. If these so-called “section 232” (section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended) investigations determine that steel import and/or aluminum imports “threaten to impair the national security[,]” then the President can impose additional customs duties (among other things) on covered products.
On June 16, 2018, the Secretary of Commerce issued his reports to the President in both matters (unclassified versions of the reports are available here).   In each case, the Department of Commerce concluded that the quantities and circumstances surrounding steel and aluminum imports “threaten to impair the national security,” thereby opening the door to the imposition of import restraints. Specifically, Commerce’s recommendations are as follows:
The WTO announced that on 19 December 2017, India notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards that it initiated on 19 December 2017
On July 14, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice providing country-by-country allocations of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (October 1, 2017 through Sept. 30, 2018) in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar, certain sugars, syrups and molasses (also known as refined sugar), specialty sugar, and sugar-containing products.
On June 29, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), in conjunction with the Department of Commerce (DoC) , published in the Federal Register a request for comments [Docket No. USTR–2017–0010] that they will consider as part of the comprehensive performance reviews required by Executive Order 13796 of April 29, 2017)
On April 28, 2017, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced the release of the 2017 “Special 301” Report, reviewing global developments on trade and intellectual property (IP) and identifying trading partners with harmful records on protection, enforcement, or market access for U.S. innovators and creators.
On March 29, 2017, the Department of State published in the Federal Register a notice [Public Notice: 9937] stating that, pursuant to Section 490(b)( l )(A) of the Foreign Assistance Act or 1961, as amended, the Under Secretary of State has determined and certified that the top five exporting and importing countries and economies of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine (Canada, China, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Republic of Korea, Switzerland and the United…