The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened an investigation into Chinese manufacturing of legacy (or foundational) semiconductors, "including to the extent that they are incorporated as components into downstream products for critical industries like defense, automotive, medical devices, aerospace, telecommunications, and power generation and the electrical grid."
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has voted to require imported consumer products regulated by the CPSC to have their certificates of compliance filed electronically.
Rep. Don Beyer, a long-time trade liberalization advocate, led a 90-minute hearing making the case against more tariffs in the second Trump administration, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden slammed the economic impact of campaign tariff promises as the Democrats try to use their bully pulpits in the last week before Republicans will have control at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who will lead the Senate Finance Committee next year, said the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program is "a high priority for me," and he tried to get the trade preference program attached to the spending bill this week.
A five-year renewal of the Haiti HELP/HOPE trade preferences is the only tariff liberalization legislation that was attached to the federal spending bill that will keep the federal government open through mid-March.
Venable lawyers said no one knows whether President-elect Donald Trump will hike tariffs on China by 10 percentage points, by 60 percentage points, or bring current tariff levels to 60%. Nor does anyone know if the threat of 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican exports will become reality.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Congress has not yet finished the text of the government spending bill that needs to pass this week, but House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said in the early afternoon that several trade provisions he had hoped would hitch a ride weren't included. He said his understanding was that the African Growth and Opportunity Act wouldn't be attached, nor would the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.
The National Marine Fisheries Service seeks to revise regulations to allow for the streamlining of electronic filing requirements pertaining to the import of fish or fish products, according to a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register.
A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told the Court of International Trade that it has now twice wrongly told an importer that its first-sale price method to determine the duty level of its cookware was prohibited.