ITC

A federal appeals court has rejected a ruling by the Court of International Trade that said Section 201 safeguard measures can be modified only to liberalize trade, contending that former President Trump acted within his authority when he moved to tighten safeguard measures on solar panels. Trump in 2020 issued a proclamation that modified safeguard measures imposed in 2018 on imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules and cells under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, including by withdrawing...

World Trade Organization negotiations on COVID-19-related intellectual property issues continued this week in Geneva following the publication of a long-awaited U.S. International Trade Commission report on diagnostics and therapeutics, which so far has not spurred progress in the talks, according to a Geneva-based trade official familiar with them. At an Oct. 31 Council on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights meeting, members heard from external stakeholders in a thematic session and were briefed on the ITC report , published earlier...

Trade between the U.S. and Pacific Island nations is hampered by the impacts of climate change and natural disasters, high production costs and infrastructure challenges, the U.S. International Trade Commission says in a new report requested by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. USTR launched the “ Trade and Investment Dialogue ” with Pacific Island countries in September 2022 to bolster trade flows and address market barriers. Shortly after its launch, Tai wrote to ITC Chair David Johanson requesting a study...

The U.S. should maintain tariffs on imports of Moroccan fertilizer, two House Republicans representing Florida districts said last week, warning that easing countervailing duties would leave U.S. fertilizer producers vulnerable to “unfairly traded” imports subsidized by “deep- pocketed foreign governments.” In an Oct. 26 letter , Reps. Gregory Steube (R-FL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL) – both House Ways & Means trade subcommittee members – urged Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to “continue strong enforcement” of U.S. trade laws and cautioned against...

The U.S. International Trade Commission has released a long-awaited report meant to inform World Trade Organization talks focused on COVID-19-related intellectual property issues, finding a wide disparity among countries with different income levels in their ability to access COVID-19 tests and treatments. The report , released on Tuesday by the ITC, was requested by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai late last year to provide more information on the production, distribution and availability of COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. Following a decision...

The U.S. government should better analyze the effects of tariffs on inequality and publish breakdowns of tariff rates and their impacts on consumers by income, race and gender, says a former official in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Ed Gresser, who was assistant U.S. Trade Representative for trade policy and economics from 2015-2021, is the vice president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a public policy think tank. He told Inside U.S. Trade on Monday that the U.S...

The safeguard measures imposed on large residential washers, which ended in February, succeeded in boosting production, capacity and market share of the U.S. industry, but the biggest beneficiaries were two Korean companies ramping up production to the U.S. rather than domestic companies, the U.S. International Trade Commission found in a new report. The Trump administration imposed tariff-rate quotas on large residential washers in 2018 under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 and the measures were extended in 2021...