The European Union has requested a World Trade Organization consultation with the United States to address the imposition of tariffs on Spanish olives in August 2018. The United States reportedly applied countervailing and anti-dumping tariffs of 34.75 percent to the import of Spanish black olives on the grounds that Spanish growers receive benefits from the EU that are unavailable to other growers, such as those in California.
Tag Archives trade
The U.S. Court of International Trade has approved a preliminary injunction preventing the importation of fish from Mexican commercial fisheries that use gillnets near where vaquitas are found. NRDC v. Ross, No. 18-0055 (Ct. Intl. Trade, entered July 26, 2018). The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the lawsuit to protect the remaining population—about 15—of the vaquita, a type of small porpoise. “It is undisputed that the cause of the vaquita’s precipitous decline is its inadvertent tangling, strangulation, and drowning in gillnets, which are fishing nets hung in the water to entangle fish and shrimp,” the court noted. “The Government of Mexico, which regulates fishing practices in the Gulf of California, has banned the usage of gillnets in certain fisheries within the vaquita’s range, though illegal gillnet fishing continues. In other fisheries, gillnet fishing remains legal. If current levels of gillnet fishing in the vaquita’s habitat continue, the species will…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) and the National Service for Animal and Plant Health, Food Safety and Quality of Mexico (SENASICA) have announced a joint Organic Compliance Committee to “ensure the integrity of organic products trade between the United States and Mexico.” With implementation of Mexico’s organic regulations slated for 2017, the two countries agreed to form a committee to achieve “equivalency in organic production and trade,” as well as enhance enforcement controls on organic products. According to an October 19, 2016, press release, the committee will “establish requirements for the use of import certificates in both countries within six months to provide verification of each shipment of organic products between the United States and Mexico.” Under the new arrangement, the committee will sample organic products for chemical residues, share the results with AMS and SENASICA, and “engage with certifiers operating in Mexico by conducting listening…
