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South Korea

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The Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 2018 Basic Edition  (HTS; USITC Pub. No. 4750) was published by the US International Trade Commission. It took effect on January 1, 2018.   This edition incorporates all changes to the HTS that took effect after the January 2017 printed edition was published through Presidential Proclamation 9687 of [December 22, 2017]: To Take Certain Actions Under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and for Other Purposes (82 Fed. Reg. 61413), effective January 1, 2018, and other dates specified therein. It is available either as a full document download, or a chapter-by-chapter download.

On December 28, 2017, the Defense Acquisition Regulations System, Department of Defense (DoD) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket DARS-2017—0017] amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to incorporate revised thresholds for application of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and the Free Trade Agreements, as determined by the United States Trade Representative.  The thresholds are effective January 1, 2018.  The thresholds are shown below:

On July 12, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that USTR Robert Lighthizer, as directed by President Trump, formally notified the Republic of Korea that the United States is calling a special Joint Committee meeting under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) to start the process of negotiating to remove barriers to U.S. trade and consider needed amendments to the agreement.

On April 14, 2017, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued its Report to Congress on Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. The Report reviews developments in international economic and exchange rate policies and is submitted pursuant to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (the “1988 Act”), 22 U.S.C. § 5305, and Section 701 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (the “2015 Act”), 19 U.S.C. § 4421. Treasury has established thresholds for the three criteria specified in the 2015 Act that determine whether enhanced analysis is necessary: (1) a significant bilateral trade surplus with the United States is one that is at least $20 billion; (2) a material current account surplus is one that is at least 3 percent of GDP; and (3) persistent, one-sided intervention occurs when net purchases of foreign currency are conducted repeatedly and total at least 2 percent of an economy’s GDP over a 12 month period.

On 13 April 2017, the Minister of International Trade and Industry published in the Federal Government Gazette P.U. (B) 191/2017 Notice of Affirmative Final Determination of an Investigation With Regard to Steel Concrete Reinforcing Bar Products Imported Into Malaysia pursuant to the Safeguards Act 2006 which applied to steel concrete reinforcing bars that are hot rolled steel bars containing indentations, ribs, grooves or other deformation.  Subsequently, on 13 April 2017, the Minister of Finance published…

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…