02/10/2020

Washington, DC – The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) is issuing a Notice in the Federal Register updating its list of countries designated as developing or least-developed under U.S. counter-vailing duty laws.  Federal law specifies certain differential treatment for imports from developing or least-developed countries and obligates USTR to update the designations periodically.  The Notice with the updated lists can be accessed at here, and the final rule can be accessed here.  – US Trade Representative 

Frustrated that some large economies continue to receive preferential trade benefits with their developing country status at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Trump administration has narrowed its internal list of developing and least-developed economies.

The U.S. eliminated its special preferences for a list of developing countries Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam.   The USTR revised the list for countervailing duty investigations.

The development is a departure from two decades of American trade policy regarding developing countries that will result in tougher penalties for some of the world’s top exporters.