TRADE DISPUTE

The UK's foreign secretary Liz Truss has delivered an oral statement to the UK Parliament, in which she announced the UK’s intention to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make (unilateral) amendments to the Northern Ireland Protocol, while also stating that the UK’s preference remains a negotiated solution with the EU. Should the amendments be adopted, this could trigger a trade war with the EU. More

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is starting to position itself to effectively enforce a ban on imports of all goods made in whole or in part from any good from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which takes effect on 21 June. More

U.S. press reports indicate that President Biden is expected to soon initiate a review of the first tranche of tariffs (List 1) that were imposed on some US$34 billion worth of imports from mainland China on 6 July 2018. However, another option for the Biden administration would be to allow the current Section 301 measures to expire and initiate a brand new, more targeted investigation into mainland China’s practices. More

In its annual notorious market report for 2021, USTR identified for the first time AliExpress and the WeChat e-commerce ecosystem as on-line markets that reportedly facilitate substantial trademark counterfeiting. The report also continues to list mainland China-based on-line markets Baidu Wangpan, DHGate, Pinduoduo and Taobao, as well as nine physical markets located within the mainland that are ostensibly known for the manufacture, distribution and sale of counterfeit goods. More