The WTO announced that WTO members discussed five new or enhanced proposals to advance services negotiations at meetings of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation and the Services Council on 14-17 March 2017. Four of these proposals aim to ensure that domestic licensing procedures and technical standards do not constitute unnecessary barriers to trade while one proposal relates to the establishment of a trade facilitation agreement for services. The WTO provided the following summaries:
Legislative Decree № 1304 (29 December 2016; DL 1304) signed by the President and Council of Ministers as well as the Secretary of Production, was published on 30 December 2016. This legislative decree (law) basically established the following:
The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee report of its inquiry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was tabled in Parliament on 7 February 2017.
On January 23, 2017, the President signed Presidential Memorandum Regarding Withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations and Agreement.
On 24 December 2016, the Official Journal published Council Decision (EU) 2016/2369 of 11 November 2016 on the signing, on behalf of the Union, and provisional application of the Protocol of Accession to the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, to take account of the accession of Ecuador. The Council Decision authorises the EU to sign and provisionally apply…
On 16 December 2016, El Peruano (the Official Gazette) published the 2017 Arancel de Aduanas (the Customs Tariff), which incorporates the 2017 Harmonized System revisions and the Nomenclatura Común de los Países Miembros de la Comunidad Andina (NANDINA), the Common Andean Community Nomenclature. It will be effective on 1 January 2017.
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.’’
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.
On 15 November 2016, the New Zealand parliament passed by a 61-57 vote, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Amendment Bill, which is an omnibus bill that would amend 11 different NZ laws to meet obligations in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and enable New Zealand to ratify the agreement.
On September 12, 2016, Global Affairs Canada posted a report by the Office of the Chief Economist, entitled Economic Impact of Canada’s Potential Participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. The study assesses the potential economic impact of the TPP Agreement on Canada and other members in terms of income gains and new trade and investment opportunities based on the final negotiated outcomes of the TPP Agreement, which was concluded in Atlanta, GA in October 2015. It highlights the projected economic impact that Canada faces if it chooses to be a party to the Agreement, as well as the potential economic impact if Canada opts out of the Agreement, and the 11 other TPP countries are part of the Agreement.