The WTO Opens Its Doors for the 15th Annual Public Forum
For the fifteenth time, the World Trade Organization (WTO) hosted its annual Public Forum in Geneva to provide a platform for an exchange of views among diplomats, business representatives, legal and economic practitioners, civil society representatives, and a range of experts on the most pressing trade issues of the day. The theme of this year’s Public Forum was “Inclusive Trade,” and the Public Forum presented a three-day series of workshops and working sessions to consider how to include more actors – women, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), and developing and least developed country economic actors – into the rules-based multilateral trade system.
A notable trend in this year’s Forum was the focus on digital trade or electronic commerce, a key engine of growth for manufacturers and high-technology companies as well as economic development for those actors who most need assistance to access world markets. A quick look through the program reveals that almost 25% of the 100 sessions focused in particular on e-commerce. Three of those sessions included as panelist King & Spalding’s Geneva Managing Partner Daniel Crosby in discussions of the importance of e-commerce for SMEs on two panels and of the legal and regulatory framework to increase digital trade for development. The conversations on inclusive trade and empowering women and SMEs, among others, highlight the increasingly important role of digital trade in the future and the need to create a sustainable and conducive environment for e-commerce to increase exports, especially by small manufacturers.
Customs and Border Protection Issues Update on Enforcement of Trade Orders
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released its AD/CVD Update for June/July 2016. As explained in the January 2015 and the August 2016 editions of the Trade & Manufacturing Alert, the AD/CVD Update is part of CBP’s outreach efforts and a way to publicize CBP’s progress on this Priority Trade Issue. The June/July 2016 highlighted two issues. The first concerned the agreement between the United States and Vietnam regarding imports of shrimp, in which one exporter will no longer be subject to antidumping duties. CBP reported that it will carry out the instructions of the Commerce Department to refund the exporter. CBP also reported that a U.S. importer of glycine is suing its German supplier for selling glycine from China, which is subject to antidumping duties. Previously CBP issued notices of action to the U.S. importer stating that the glycine it imported was Chinese origin and subject to antidumping duties. The German supplier informed the importer that it repacked and relabeled the glycine but could not provide documentation to support the country of origin.
ITC Reinstates 337 Case on Imports of Steel
On August 5, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) reversed an Initial Determination issued by Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Dee Lord in the Section 337 investigation In the Matter of Certain Carbon and Alloy Steel Products (Inv. No. 337-TA-1002). Previous coverage of ALJ Lord’s Initial Determination suspending the investigation can be seen here. In an opinion released on August 16, the ITC stated that there was no statutory basis for ALJ Lord to suspend an investigation in order to provide notice of the investigation to the Department of Commerce, nor were there any antidumping or countervailing duty investigations pending before the Department of Commerce that would warrant a suspension. As a result, the ITC reinstated the investigation. Any final resolution, however, will still be a long time coming, as a determination made on August 29 by ALJ Lord extended the target date for the completion of this investigation to March 2, 2018.
New Sanctions on Russian Entities
In September, the Treasury Department and the Department of Commerce placed sanctions on a new set of Russian entities. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added individuals and entities to both the Specially Designated Nationals List and the Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List under its Ukraine-/Russia-related sanctions program. The Bureau of Industry and Security at the Commerce Department followed suit shortly thereafter, adding eighty-one entities to the Entity List, signifying that these entities “have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.” OFAC also published a general license under its program, “Authorizing Certain Transactions Otherwise Prohibited by Executive Order 13685 Necessary to Divest or Transfer Holdings in Certain Blocked Entities.” This license applies to holdings in PJSC Mostotrest.
