After losing a USMCA dispute panel ruling on its measures to phase out genetically modified corn and crops treated with the herbicide glyphosate, Mexico announced this week it is repealing the decrees that addressed those issues.
Canada announced then later rescinded retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. after both sides reached an agreement to delay new tariffs this week.
The auction process for ships to pass through the Panama Canal when the water is low, and the fact that a Hong Kong company owns ports by the entrance and exit of the Panama Canal were the focuses of a Senate hearing on the canal -- but the way Iranian ships used Panama to evade sanctions also came up.
DHS Homeland Security Investigations made 1,512 seizures for violations of export laws and regulations in FY 2024, an almost identical pace to 2023, according to the division's annual report, released last week. The Export Enforcement Coordination Center also uncovered 49 investigative leads that helped prevent procurement of sensitive U.S. technologies.
After a panel report found Mexico's plans to replace GMO corn over time in industrial food and animal feed -- and its ban on genetically modified white corn -- violate its USMCA commitments, the Mexican government said it will honor the result.
A bipartisan, bicameral bill would create a Maritime Security Trust Fund, into which revenues would come from tonnage fees on Chinese-owned and Chinese-flagged ships visiting U.S. ports, special tonnage taxes, light money, and tariffs and duties, including Section 301 tariffs.
A dispute panel ruled that Mexico's ban on genetically modified white corn, along with its intention to phase out GMO yellow corn for industrial foods and animal feed, violate the NAFTA successor agreement, because they "are not based on relevant international standards, guidelines or recommendations, or on an assessment, as appropriate to the circumstances, of the risk to human, animal, or plant life or health," and Mexico didn't conduct its own documented risk assessment, or base the decree on science.
Donald Trump's return to the White House brings a "lack of predictability," Baker McKenzie attorneys said during a webinar last week on how threatened tariffs could affect countries around the globe.
President-elect Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he will block the purchase of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel, though it's possible President Joe Biden will take care of that before Trump is inaugurated.
The former chief of staff to then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been chosen for USTR in Donald Trump's second administration.