EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said he asked American officials this week for more flexibility in how the tariff rate quotas for European steel products are administered. He said that while actions of the Biden administration have "put things, tradewise, on a more positive track," in his view "the current system [for TRQs] seems to be quite rigid."
The director of CBP's Office of Trade told an audience that importers who are considering importing a good that has a new supply chain and are concerned about running afoul of the ban on imports of goods made with forced labor can submit a request for a binding ruling that the product's supply chain is free of forced labor. CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner AnnMarie Highsmith, speaking at a webinar hosted by the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law on April 20, noted she was not presenting CBP's official position in her remarks.
The CBP collected about $85.5 billion in duties in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2021, a 14.9% increase from the previous fiscal year, a recent report shows. The annual report also noted that there were 36.9 million entries during the fiscal year, which was higher than before the pandemic.
A Mexican union and a U.S. nonprofit have jointly filed a rapid response complaint against Panasonic Automotive's plant in Reynosa, Mexico. The Sindicato Nacional Independiente de Trabajadores de Industrias y de Servicios "Movimiento 20/32" (SNITIS) says more than 600 workers at the plant asked for SNITIS to be their new union, but the company is collaborating with a Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM) union. According to the complaint, there are about 2,000 workers at the plant, who make audio systems and screens for automobiles that are exported to the U.S. and to other markets.
Inaccurate invoices, charges for cargo that sits around because the ship left early, demurrage charges that start before the container reaches the terminal, charges for not retuning empty equipment when no appointments were available -- importers and brokers have many complaints about the detention and demurrage billing practices, and are telling the Federal Maritime Commission that they hope it standardizes how ocean carriers and marine terminals bill, and puts guardrails around their practices.
Given the depletion of fish in the ocean, and estimates that about 11% of U.S. seafood imports resulted from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, a recent Congressional Research Service report said Congress may want to strengthen legislation tackling the issue.
In a daylong hearing about how to deal with the distortion Chinese industrial policy creates in world markets, American witnesses recommended dramatic changes to government policies aimed at divorcing China from the U.S. economy, and not just in sensitive technologies, but also in consumer goods, such as cell phones and tablets or electric vehicle components. All were speaking on trade issues to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission April 14. The commission's mandate is to report to Congress on the national security implications and impact of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and China, and its members are appointed by Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
Coalition for a Prosperous America trade counsel Charles Benoit slammed Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, calling him "chief betrayer" for the trade title he was integral in shaping in the Senate China package, known as the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act or USICA. In an April 14 blog post, Benoit said that Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is "laser focused on making imports as cheap and easy as possible." Benoit said that "USICA’s trade title is cancerous to its core -- akin to committing economic treason against American workers and industry." He said the Section 301 exclusion process requirements are the worst, but he also criticized the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill renewal, which would continue the ability of finished goods to qualify for unilateral tariff reduction or elimination. "If Republicans don’t abandon his betrayal of our nation, the GOP will spend another decade tarnished as the party of globalization, big tech, and the hollowing out of our country," Benoit wrote. Crapo's office declined to comment.
A dozen members of the House of Representatives are asking U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to change the administration's strategy on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework to move it closer to a traditional trade agreement, including asking partners to lower tariffs for U.S. exports (see 2204120058). The April 12 letter, led by Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Carol Miller, R-W.Va., also was signed by the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb.
Massive delays and a drop in traffic at the U.S.-Mexico border caused by secondary Texas state inspections have drawn fire from CBP, the trade community and even the White House.