House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., told an audience of trade professionals that while he appreciates the complaint that CBP cannot adequately screen packages that enter under de minimis, he thinks if de minimis is tightened, it could make enforcement even more difficult.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that talking about tariffs more than other aspects of trade policy is, to a large degree, "a red herring," and said reducing U.S. trade policy "down to a conversation about tariffs is really unfair."

Trade groups are telling the Consumer Product Safety Commission that its supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on new electronic filing procedures for certificates of compliance is premature, since the beta pilot for importers e-filing CPSC certificates and the CPSC Product Registry only began late last year.

Midway through the second term of solar safeguards, imports of solar panels (modules) and cells have been climbing, and the market has almost entirely shifted to bifacial solar panels, which were at first carved out of the safeguard. Whether a decision to revoke that exclusion in 2019 was legal is still being litigated (see 2311130031 and 2401290014).

Trade groups representing importers of motor vehicles are asking the Interagency Autos Committee to advocate for allowing used cars made during the NAFTA years to enter duty free if those vehicles qualified for NAFTA benefits, and to make it easier to prove that cars built since July 1, 2020, qualify for USMCA tariff benefits.

CBP is now accepting applications to become approved accreditors of customs broker continuing education activities under a recent final rule that requires brokers to complete 36 hours of continuing education every three years to maintain their licenses (see 2306220036).

The Federal Maritime Commission may need to change the way it adjudicates emergency surcharge waivers requested by carriers, at least one shipping industry official said during an informal Feb. 7 FMC hearing on Red Sea shipping disruptions.

The Chinese government is going out of its way to evade forced labor laws by making supply chains less transparent, including by limiting access to corporate information online with "heavy" censorship, Yalkun Uluyol, a researcher at the Forced Labour Lab at Sheffield Hallam University, said at a U.K. Parliament hearing Feb. 6.

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.

Because the FDA is not able to inspect foreign pharmaceutical factories with enough frequency -- and because the quality of those inspections is compromised by several factors -- some suggest that more imported drugs should be inspected at the border to ensure quality.