The Federal Maritime Commission is ending one of its two investigations into new Canadian rules that were thought to have imposed unfair burdens on U.S. vessels, making the announcement after Canada granted exemptions for six ships and took other steps to “temporarily” resolve the issue. The FMC said it’s still moving forward with a separate, broader investigation into whether the Canadian regulations unfairly affect all U.S.-flagged Great Lakes vessels.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) has invited Costa Rica to join the pact, Canada said in a statement released Nov. 30. At the eighth CPTPP Commission meeting in Vancouver, the commission agreed to begin the accession process, originally requested by Costa Rica in 2022, noting the Central American country's "history as a supporter of the rules-based trading system, its experience with high-standard trade and investment rules, and [its] affirmation of its intention to comply with the obligations of the CPTPP." The accession process begins with the formation of an Accession Working Group, which will establish a timeline for Costa Rica's membership.
USDA is accepting applications from exporters for its upcoming trade mission to Guatemala, the agency's Foreign Agricultural Service said last week. The March 3-7 trade mission will feature meetings with Central American importers, market briefings on the region, site visits and opportunities to speak with USDA officials.
A new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found that arms trafficking in Latin America is increasingly connected to the U.S. firearms industry, including through illegal and legal exports.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump said he would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico until they take steps to address drugs and migrants crossing the border, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum warned that she might retaliate with her own set of trade restrictions.
More than 40 members of Congress are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to push back against a Colombian plan to investigate U.S. corn subsidies. The letter, led by Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Reps. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Dan Kildee, D-Mich., noted that Colombia found that U.S. milk powder exports were subsidized to the extent that countervailing duties were warranted, and "imposed punitive tariffs."
New steel import requirements took effect Nov. 5 under Canada’s Steel Import Monitoring Program, which requires Canadian importers to provide information on the country of melt and pour (COM) of certain steel products at the time of importation (see 2408260042). A notice published last week sets import requirements under Canada’s General Import Permit No. 80 for Carbon Steel and General Import Permit No. 81 for Specialty Steel Products, which will help Canada monitor steel and “facilitate the collection of import data.” Under the program, importers may also be required to give documents or other records to Global Affairs Canada to allow the agency to pinpoint “any errors in import data” and find “the source of any inconsistencies in a targeted manner.”
Canada is studying several policy and legislative options to strengthen its forced labor enforcement, including one that could establish new import traceability requirements for certain goods and another that could require importers to pay all fees associated with imports detained for forced labor.
Canada’s Standing Committee on International Trade last week voted against delaying until April the implementation of the Canada Border Services Agency’s new Assessment and Revenue Management (CARM) system, setting up the new system to go live as planned on Oct. 21, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a message to its members. The committee, part of Canada’s House of Commons, struck down the motion 6-5, the NCBFAA said.
Canada plans to require Canadian steel importers to provide information on the country of melt and pour (COM) for imported steel at the time of importation, which will “improve the data quality” of its Steel Import Monitoring Program, it said in a recent notice. The proposal would specifically revise provisions of Canada’s General Import Permit No. 80 for Carbon Steel and the General Import Permit No. 81 for Specialty Steel Products to “require importers to provide COM information” to the Canada Border Services Agency “at the time of importation as terms and conditions of using” the permits.