The USTR is mandated by law to annually report to Congress on Russia's implementation of WTO agreements, including agreements on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Intellectual Property Rights, as well as its progress towards acceding to the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). The USTR is currently soliciting public comments for this year's report to gauge Russia's compliance with the commitments made during accession. Specific areas of interest include import and export regulations, subsidies, standards, sanitary measures, intellectual property rights, government procurement, rule of law issues, trade facilitation, and other WTO commitment

The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM), will survey U.S. exporters and commercial lending institutions to understand their experience with EXIM “meeting financial competition from …

This notice informs the public of the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standard-setting activities of the Codex Alimentarius (Codex). The USCO is responsible for publishing annual notices in the Federal Register regarding SPS activities of Codex, detailing standards under consideration, descriptions of such considerations, U.S. participation, agendas, and agency responsibilities. The notice also seeks public comments on current or planned standards.

The Census Bureau issues this final rule amending its regulations to reflect new export reporting requirements related to the State Department, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) Category XXI Determination Number. Specifically, the Census Bureau is adding a conditional data element, DDTC Category XXI Determination Number, when “21” is selected in the DDTC USML Category Code field in the Automated Export System (AES) to represent United States Munitions List (USML) Category XXI.

Bureau of Industry and Security, Department of Commerce published a request for comment on the Additional Protocol to the United States—International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards The Additional Protocol requires the United States to submit declaration forms to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on a number of commercial nuclear and nuclear-related items, materials, and activities that may be used for peaceful nuclear purposes, but also would be necessary elements for a nuclear weapons program.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is issuing Belarus General Licenses authorizing the wind down of transactions with a Byelorussian Steel Works and Airline. The Action includes the addition of a Miami, FL based steel trader and the Minsk Civil Aviation Plant 407, "the leading enterprise in the CIS and the countries of the former USSR in repair, modernization and maintenance of the Yak-40, Yak-42, Yak-52, Tu-134 aircraft of all modifications," according to the company website.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission invites submission of proposals to provide a concise, one-time unclassified report on China’s Advanced Remote Sensing Technologies and Applications, which should assess China’s objectives and approach to advanced remote sensing technologies. Proposals must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. (ET) on September 8, 2023.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is amending the Mali Sanctions Regulations and reissuing them in their entirety.   This regulatory amendment took effect …

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement today requested the government of Mexico review an allegation that workers at the Yazaki auto parts facility in Leon, Guanajuato, are being denied the right to freedom of association.  This is the seventh time in 2023, and twelfth time overall, the United States has sought Mexico’s review under the USMCA’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Mexico’s Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera recently held the Strategic Dialogue on Illicit Finance (SDIF) in Mexico City on August 2nd and 3rd. Assistant …

The Administration is expecting a panel decision in a dispute with Canada over its dairy policy under US-Mexico-Canada Agreement later this summer or early fall, Chief US Agricultural Negotiator Doug McKalip said Wednesday. The Administration remains “laser focused” on the issue and will keep up the pressure until US dairy producers have the full retail access to Canada’s market promised in the USMCA, he stated. “This battle is not over.”

Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce Department is calling for comments on the Five-Year Records Retention Requirement for Export Transactions and Boycott Actions. Public comments were previously requested via the Federal Register on April 5, 2023, during a 60-day comment period. This notice allows for an additional 30 days for public comments.

  U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published the  2023 DOE Critical Materials List. This list includes critical materials for energy, as determined by the Secretary of Energy …

The Administration is concerned about the potential threat posed by China’s growing electric vehicles industry, Brian Janovitz, chief counsel for China Trade Enforcement at the US Trade …

 The facilitator overseeing informal discussions on reforming the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement system says there are “highly sensitive issues for which Members still hold different conceptual views about how to tackle them,” said people familiar with the discussions. To overcome the continued paralysis in the two-tier dispute settlement system, trade ministers at the 12th ministerial meeting last year mandated their respective representatives at the WTO to “commit to conduct discussions with the view to having a fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system accessible to all Members by 2024.”

The African Group, comprised of over 50 developing and underdeveloped countries, proposes "achievable and credible" measures to cut trade-distorting domestic support and blue and green box subsidies worth hundreds of billions of US dollars, our correspondent writes. The proposal contends that green box subsidies are becoming increasingly trade-distorting, thereby questioning the premise that these agricultural supports do not affect trade.

More than 50 countries of the African Group as well as Pakistan have raised a red flag against seemingly asymmetrical provisions in the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture that fail to provide a special safeguard mechanism to face sudden and unforeseen surges in food products. While industrialized countries such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, Norway and several developing countries are able to cushion their agriculture with safeguard provisions in the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture to stop unforeseen imports of agricultural products, a large majority of developing countries do not have such a facility.

Mexico's Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare responded to the US Government regarding the labor dispute at the country's largest underground mine, asserting that the events leading to the strike and the subsequent denial of rights occurred before the implementation of the treaty in 2020. Consequently, under the principle of non-retroactivity of the law, the MLRR does not apply to this dispute.

Importers or their authorized filers may submit a request to the Port Director at which their cargo is detained to move their detained cargo to a customs bonded warehouse for storage pending resolution by CBP or the importer. The Port Director has the authority to approve or deny the request and will do so based on the circumstances at their port.  Importers or their authorized filers may not move detained goods suspected of being made with forced labor into a Foreign Trade Zone for storage.

 While Congress takes a Summer recess, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and his Congressional Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party continue to badger communists and their supporters at every turn, from coastal investment elites to row crop farmers in Iowa. Thursday, Mr. Gallagher, Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), hosted a roundtable event in Dysart, Iowa to highlight the Chinese Communist Party's agricultural technology theft.