Draft Vietnam Fumigation Requirements

The U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has released draft fumigation requirements for U.S. exports of DDG, corn and wheat in containers. The documents provide guidance for industry on container fumigations, and a checklist for official inspectors to be used during the export phytosanitary inspection of containerized DDG, corn and wheat.  The documents incorporate comments received from industry over the past few weeks. NAEGA is asking all members to consider these drafts and submit comments or revisions as soon as possible.

• Industry requirements for container fumigation
• Checklist for Official Inspection of DDG/Corn /Wheat to Viet Nam

Regional and Seasonal AD/CVD Letter

On Wednesday, August 30 NAEGA joined a letter to USTR Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn regarding proposed changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that would change trade remedy law by re-defining domestic industry on a seasonal/regional basis, making it easier for all three nations to impose anti-dumping duties on imports of many types of produce. The letter calls on the Administration to withhold from introducing any provisions that would encourage trading partners to raise tariffs by using regional and seasonal effects as a justification.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

NAFTA Chapter 19 Letter

On Wednesday, August 30 NAEGA joined a letter to USTR Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn regarding Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The letter recognizes the benefits of Chapter 19 of the agreement, which allows U.S. companies to hold the Canadian and Mexican government accountable for unjustified AD/CVD duties. Without Chapter 19, U.S. companies would be forced to contest AD and CVD determinations in lengthy and potentially unreliable Canadian and Mexican court proceedings. The letter confirms that the success of the NAFTA agreement for U.S. food and agriculture partly lies on the agreements dispute settlement mechanisms.

A copy of the letter can be found here.

U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade

The U.S. Food and Agriculture Dialogue for Trade held a successful meeting on Friday, August 25. During the meeting, Gary Hufbauer, Reginald Jones Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics gave an update on his perspective on the NAFTA negotiations and the prospects for the Administration’s trade policy. In addition, Dialogue members heard an update on NAFTA from Chief U.S. Negotiator Robert Melle and Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Sharon Bomer-Lauritsen.

Please contact Gary or Ryan if you would like to know more about the Dialogue discussions.