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US – President proclaims 2017 HTS and FTA staging rates

By 2 Mins Read

On January 2, 2016, the Federal Register published Proclamation 9549 of December 1, 2016 – To Modify the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States and for Other Purposes. The Proclamation modifies the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) to implement the 2017 Harmonized System revisions adopted by the WCO.  The actual modifications are incorporated by reference from Annex I of U.S. International Trade Commission Publication 4653 titled, ‘‘Modifications to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Under Section 1206 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988.’’  

WTO TBT Notifications

By 1 Min Read

Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to report to the WTO all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade with other Member countries. The WTO Secretariat distributes this information in the form of “notifications” to all Member countries. The chart below summarizes notifications from the WTO in English received and posted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) during the past month.

US – State certifies shrimp harvesting nations

By 2 Mins Read

  On May 26, 2016, the Department of State published in the Federal Register a document [Public Notice: 9584] announcing that on May 3, 2016, it certified that 14 shrimp-harvesting nations (Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Gabon, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, and Suriname) have a regulatory program comparable to that of the United States governing the incidental taking of the relevant species of sea turtles in the course of commercial shrimp…

US – Government Procurement: DFARS Trade Agreements thresholds set

By 2 Mins Read

  On December 30, 2015, the Defense Acquisition Regulations System, Department of Defense (DoD) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket DARS–2015–0066] amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to incorporate increased thresholds for application of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and the Free Trade Agreements, as determined by the United States Trade Representative (USTR).  Every two years, the trade agreements thresholds are escalated according to a predetermined formula set forth in the…

US – President modifies HTS and removes Burundi as AGOA beneficiary

By 3 Mins Read

  On December 21, 2015, President Obama signed Presidential Proclamation — African Growth and Opportunity Act which: • terminated the designation of Burundi as a beneficiary sub-Saharan African country for purposes of section 506A of the 1974 Act, effective on January 1, 2016;  • added additional tariff lines to Chapter 99 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) of the United States to reduce administrative burden and encourage electronic administration of the quota classifications of sugars, syrups, and molasses…

US – USTR publishes TAA thresholds for CY 2016-2017

By 3 Mins Read

  On December 15, 2015, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of determination of procurement thresholds for calendar years 2016 and 2017. Executive Order 12260 requires the USTR to set the U.S. dollar thresholds for application of Title III of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2511 et seq.), which implements U.S. trade agreement obligations, including those under the WTO Agreement on Government…

US – USTR determines there is a trade surplus in certain sugar products

By 1 Min Read

On December 11, 2015, the Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice of its determination of the trade surplus in certain sugar and syrup goods and sugar containing products of Chile, Morocco, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, and Panama. As described in the notice, the level of a country’s trade surplus in these goods relates to the quantity of sugar and syrup goods…

EU revises lists of GSP and GSP+ eligible beneficiary countries

By 2 Mins Read

On 27 September 2014, the Official Journal published Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1015/2014 of 22 July 2014 amending Annexes II and III to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences, and repealing Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 154/2013 and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1016/2014 of 22 July 2014 amending Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of…

EFTA-Central America FTA set to enter into force

By 2 Mins Read

On 23 July 2014, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) announced that following its ratification by all parties, the free trade agreement (FTA) between the EFTA States – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – and the Central American States of Costa Rica and Panama will become operational in the coming weeks. The announcement stated: The FTA was signed in June 2013. Its entry into force will occur in three stages: on 19 August 2014 between…