The Year in Trade

On August 29, 2022, The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) released The Year in Trade 2021 (Inv. No. 332-345), its annual overview of developments regarding the operation of the U.S. trade agreements program for 2021.

The USITC's The Year in Trade is one of the government's most comprehensive reports available regarding activities related to U.S. trade policies, agreements, and trade laws. This report is the 73rd in a series of annual reports submitted to the U.S. Congress under section 163(c) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2213(c)) and its predecessor legislation.

The publication reviews U.S. international trade laws and actions under these laws, activities of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and developments regarding U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs), FTA negotiations, and U.S. bilateral trade relations with major trading partners in 2021.

In addition to discussion on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions on international trade, topics covered in The Year in Trade 2021 include:

• U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty, safeguard, intellectual property rights infringement, national security, and section 301 cases active in 2021;
• amendments to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, and the operation of U.S. trade preference programs, including the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the Nepal Trade Preferences Act, and the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, including initiatives for Haiti;
• WTO dispute settlement decisions and other significant activities in the WTO and initiatives under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum;
• implementation and enforcement matters under the United States-Canada-Mexico Agreement and other U.S. FTAs in effect; and
• bilateral trade issues with selected major U.S. trading partners -- the European Union, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, the United Kingdom, and India.

The report also provides an overview of U.S. trade in goods and services during 2021. Statistical tables highlight U.S. bilateral trade with major trading partners and trade under U.S. trade preference programs and FTAs.

The Year in Trade 2021 (USITC Publication 5349, August 2022) will be posted on the USITC's Internet site at https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub5349.pdf.   

A set of interactive, web-based presentations of underlying data is also available at:

• Interactive dashboard: https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/yit_2021_interactive_dashboard
• Interactive Exchange Rate figure: https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/yit_2021_interactive_exchange_rate
• Trade Balance: https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/yit_2021_interactive_dashboard
• Sector: https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/yit_2021_sector