Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is sharing draft text with the trade of a bill that would remove goods subject to Section 301 tariffs from the de minimis entry lane, along with any categories deemed "import sensitive" in the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program legislation.
CBP unveiled Aug, 2 a list of proposals further defining just how President Joe Biden expects the agency to implement Biden’s "Detect and Defeat" legislation (see 2407310030) aimed at thwarting fentanyl and other illicit drugs from entering the U.S. via the millions of de minimis shipments or imports that are worth less than $800.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has traditionally been a defender of the current law on de minimis (see 1907300048), said that while he's not up for lowering the $800 threshold, he would be willing to change the low value import process to combat fentanyl, as the White House is proposing.
A united front and better data analysis are key to ensuring that imported seafood is lawfully produced and harvested, representatives from CBP, the FDA, the Department of Labor and NOAA Fisheries said when discussing the next steps for NOAA's Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) during a July 30 webinar hosted by the Stimson Center think tank.
On CBP’s July 30 post-deployment call on its recently launched first stage of its $800 de minimis limit validation in ACE -- the requirement that Type 86 filings include an estimated date of arrival starting July 25 -- trade community concerns centered on the second stage, when CBP in September will begin rejecting shipments for exceeding the limit.
A bipartisan pair of senators fleshed out a trade facilitation framework released in early June (see 2406100015) with legislative text that authorizes spending to create a true single window and modernize ACE, as well as details of how duty drawback could change.
The White House is asking Congress to pass a law that "would require importers of small packages to provide additional information to Customs and Border Protection officials so that we can keep track of these packages and better detect and identify packages that are carrying illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and related machinery," and is giving agencies 30 days to review public-private partnerships with "shipping companies, freight forwarding companies, e-commerce entities" and others to see how effective they are in stopping the distribution of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, and asking for recommendations on how to close "key gaps" in those partnerships.
The U.S. government, aware that many goods made with forced labor are inputs to finished goods, is working both to identify those inputs and to help importers understand that their goods could be banned from import as traceability becomes more possible.
Higher or new Section 301 tariffs on lithium-ion batteries for EVs, lead-acid battery parts, golf-cart like EVs, electric cars, vans and buses, plug-in hybrids, ship-to-shore cranes, solar cells, solar panels, syringes, needles, three categories of disposable masks, 26 critical minerals, more than 100 HTS codes covering iron and steel products, and 31 aluminum HTS codes, all on imports from China, will not go up on Aug. 1, as originally announced two months ago (see 2405220072).
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