An EU-New Zealand trade agreement that eliminates tariffs on EU goods such as "pig meat, wine and sparkling wine, chocolate, sugar confectionary and biscuits," entered into force May 1, the European Commission announced. Under the deal, "sensitive EU agricultural products such as beef, sheepmeat and dairy products are protected with carefully designed tariff rate quotas." EU investors will also receive nondiscriminatory treatment in New Zealand and EU companies will receive greater access to New Zealand procurement contracts, the commission said.
The free trade agreement between China and Ecuador will enter into force May 1, China's Ministry of Commerce announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministry said the agreement will cancel tariffs on about 90% of goods, with 60% of them to take effect immediately on the day the agreement takes effect. The two countries will establish closer ties in areas such as "rules of origin, customs procedures and trade facilitation, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical trade barriers, trade remedies, dispute settlement, investment cooperation, e-commerce, competition, economic cooperation and so on."
A "snapshot" report just released by the Government Accountability Office reminded Congress that the GAO has studied -- and made recommendations -- on many aspects of how to manage economic competition with China, including providing more resources to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, improving information sharing with companies to keep more counterfeits out of U.S. commerce, and improving the tariff exclusions process for steel and aluminum imports.
The Aluminum Association cheered the Mexican decision to apply tariffs to 544 tariff lines in aluminum and aluminum products. The tariffs are as low as 5% or 10% on some products, but are 25% and 35% on most.
Costa Rica recently restored tariffs on non-U.S. origin rice, “instantly boosting U.S. rice competitiveness through preferential access negotiated in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR),” USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report last week. The 35% tariff had been removed in August 2022, but was restored April 11 after a court found against the removal. “Industry and government sources confirmed Costa Rican importers have already taken steps to import more U.S. rice in 2024,” the report said.
U.S. exports of semiconductors and their components to China dropped 39% to $6.8 billion in 2023 and were down 52% from their 2021 peak, partly due to restrictions the Bureau of Industry and Security released in October 2022 and expanded a year later (see [Ref:2310170055), the U.S.-China Business Council said April 23.
The Canada Border Services Agency will delay its next deployment of its Customs Assessment and Revenue Management system until October, the agency said last week. CBSA had been scheduled to launch the automated duty collection system on May 13, but will now only do so internally, pushing back the release of the trade-facing aspects of CARM.
Former top officials in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Trump and Biden administrations said there will be no return to a pre-Trumpian, pro-free trade philosophy, whether Joe Biden wins re-election this fall or Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025.
China announced that it is "firmly opposed" to both the U.S. decision to open a new Section 301 investigation on allegedly unfair practices in China's maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors (see 2404170029) and President Joe Biden's call for a "tripling" of the existing Section 301 tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum (see 2404170040).
Although all members of the House Ways and Means Committee supported a bill renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, the bill proceeded to the House floor on a split bipartisan vote of 17-24 as Democrats unsuccessfully called to include an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers program, which lapsed in 2022.