Monthly Archives: April 2018

US Trade Representative (USTR) – 2018 National Trade Estimate Report.

April 3, 2018 By in NTE, Uncategorized Tags: Leave a comment

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Last week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) released their 2018 National Trade Estimate. The National Trade Estimate (NTE) is an annual report documenting foreign trade and investment hurdles American exports face when conducting business abroad.

The entire 504 page report can be downloaded here.

Fortunately, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) has made several fact sheets available summarizing major points in these key issues:

2018 Fact Sheet: Key Barriers to Digital Trade

2018 Fact Sheet: Reducing Technical Barriers to Trade

2018 Fact Sheet: USTR Success Stories: Opening Markets for U.S. Agricultural Exports

2018 Fact Sheet: National Trade Estimate Report – Major Developments

For all your legal trade law questions, contact David Hsu, 832.896.6288 or by email at attorney.dave@yahoo.com.

Thailand seeks admission to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP).

April 3, 2018 By in Uncategorized Tags: , Leave a comment

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After the TPP was signed earlier in March, Thailand’s government, through the Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, expressed Thailand’s desire to being a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Thailand previously hoped to make progress in negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, which consists of Japan, China, India, and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Instead, 11 member nations signed the TPP agreement earlier this month.

The TPP will go into effect 60 days after at least 6 member countries complete the necessary domestic procedures to gain approval of the agreement.

Thailand’s government apparently decided to join the TPP to avoid losing out in multilateral free trade.

US Customs and Border Protection and Mexican Counterparts sign Memo of Understanding.

April 3, 2018 By in Department of Homeland Security, SAT, Uncategorized Tags: , Leave a comment
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Credit: DHS Official Photo/Jetta Disco)

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on March 26, 2018, that U.S. Customs and  U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan and the Tax Administration Service (SAT) Chief Osvaldo Santin signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) on customs issues and trade enforcement.

The MOU/MOC included commitments to cooperate on issues such as:

  1. increasing trade and customs compliance;
  2. battling cross-border illicit acitivites;
  3. cargo pre-inspection; and
  4. commitment to work together on unified cargo processing;
  5. collaboration on agriculture safety;
  6. collaboration on agriculture quarantine inspections and;
  7. information sharing.

The official homeland security press release can be found here.

With an ever increasing trade of goods between the US and Mexico, it’s great that CBP and SAT will work together to improve our trade relationship with Mexico.