Strong demand contributed to Costco’s 38.2% e-commerce sales increase for the fiscal third quarter ended May 9, but port delays “are continuing to have an impact,” Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said on a May 27 earnings call. “The turnaround of a container hitting the U.S., delivering its contents and being back at the U.S. port to head back overseas” has doubled to 50 days compared with a year ago, he said. “Chips shortages are impacting many items from an inflation standpoint, some items more than others,” Galanti said. “We continue to work to mitigate cost increases and supply chain delays in a variety of different ways,” mostly by “front-loading” orders of many items, he said. “The feeling is that this will continue” at least for the rest of calendar year 2021, he said. Galanti estimates that about 70% of the warehouse club’s “big and bulky” items is now being delivered through the Costco Logistics trucking fleet, he said. “Some of it was being delivered by third parties that were doing fine, but now we're doing it ourselves,” he said. Costco Logistics “is continuing to grow very handily” in fulfillment of articles for the home, including big-screen TVs, he said.

A recent Economic Policy Institute report that showed the domestic aluminum industry as thriving while the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum were in place demonstrates the continued need for the tariffs, United Steelworkers International said in a news release. "The Section 232 measures are allowing the domestic aluminum industry to regrow and add jobs," union President Tom Conway said in a statement. "This includes new investment not only in aluminum production, but downstream as well. We cannot jeopardize our fragile economic recovery by lifting them prematurely. As we continue to work toward a permanent multilateral solution for global overcapacity, we must maintain and strengthen these measures so that we can rebuild our communities and safeguard our national security. Unless and until we have a comprehensive set of solutions, the 232 national security measures should remain in place."

The Coalition for a Prosperous America says that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill lead to offshoring and a low-wage workforce in the U.S., and that the MTB is "abused by importers who lobby against policies to boost domestic production, and it conflicts with the national imperative to re-shore the industries and jobs we have lost."

Imports sustain an estimated 21.4 million net U.S. jobs, including a “net positive number” of employees in every state, said a Trade Partnership Worldwide report, “Imports Work for American Workers,” commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association, the National Retail Federation, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and six other business and trade associations.

A former U.S. trade representative and a former deputy national security adviser agree that companies that do business in China are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they will anger China if they disavow abuses in Xinjiang or Hong Kong, but could break U.S. law if they make clothes with Xinjiang cotton.

Agricultural trade groups recently wrote to President Joe Biden, asking him to quickly nominate someone for the job of chief agricultural negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. “The world is moving forward on trade agreements, and unjustified barriers to U.S. food and agricultural exports are growing,” the letter said, so the office needs an advocate for expanding agricultural market access for U.S. food, seafood and ag products.

Arent Fox is launching a Forced Labor team led by Angela Santos to assist companies in implementing forced labor compliance procedures, the firm announced in a May 12 alert. Given CBP's increased focus on forced labor in global supply chains, the need for proper import compliance and supply chain due diligence is at an all-time high. The new team seeks to help with that compliance and offers other services such as protests and petitions for release of seized merchandise, forced labor codes of conduct, supplier forced labor agreements, supply chain evaluations, customs questionnaires, forced labor audits and protest, forfeiture and customs penalty cases, according to the alert.

An increase in CBP bond increase letters in recent years doesn't seem likely to dissipate anytime soon, International Bond and Marine Brokerage said in a blog post. The increased tariffs during the Trump administration led to more bond notices from CBP (see 1807260011) and during April, "IB&M saw its highest level of monthly bond increases since former President [Donald] Trump was in office," it said. "What does that mean for customs brokers and their importing clients? More of the same we’re afraid," it said. "Higher Tariffs on Chinese merchandise and ensuing Bond Increase letters do not appear to be going away any time soon. We recommend customs brokers advise importers not to simply take the bare minimum bond amount requested on CBP's increase demand letter. We instead recommend importers go with a bond amount based on CBP’s guidance to Forecast the next 12 months of anticipated duties to avoid Bond-Stacking Liability. Customs Brokers should use entry data from CBP and work closely with clients to avoid insufficiency letters, demurrage, unnecessary collateral, cash tie-ups, and additional single entry bond fees."

Sobel Network Shipping Co. acquired Sunshine Services International, an airline general sales agent “with an export-focused client base that will complement Sobel's expanding and diverse business footprint,” Sobel said in a May 3 news release. Terms of the deal weren't released.

The National Association of Beverage Importers is pleased that U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai chose to highlight the pause in tariffs between European countries and the U.S. over Airbus and Boeing subsidies, and believes her testimony in front of a Senate subcommittee on April 28 “is a very promising sign for successful settlement negotiations.” But NABI President Robert Tobiassen said his group is concerned that an announcement of a permanent solution to the dispute could come just two or three weeks before the temporary pause ends, which makes it hard for importers to know how to schedule shipments. They said another extension of the temporary pause now, even of just two more months, would be better.