Canadian leaders with an interest in trading with the U.S. are looking South with trepidation, realizing that President Donald Trump could be back in office in 2026, when all three countries will have to agree to continue the NAFTA successor.

Imports from a major Chinese PVC, chemical and textile manufacturer and two other textile companies will be barred from the U.S. beginning Sept. 27, after their listings by DHS on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List the previous day.

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Rising U.S.-China tensions are causing all-time highs in uncertainty and pessimism for U.S. companies doing business in China, and are driving U.S. companies to reduce investment in China in record numbers, according to an annual member survey released by the U.S.-China Business Council on Sept. 26. More than a third of companies said they have either stopped investing in China or have scaled back.

Parts of two refinery units cannot all be classified under a tariff schedule provision for "distilling or rectifying plant," because not every subunit contributes to the "clearly defined function of distillation," CBP said in a recently released ruling. The ruling was issued in response to a request for a binding classification ruling by Marathon Petroleum Company.

Federal Maritime Commission staff have "nearly" completed the drafting process for the commission's upcoming final rule on detention and demurrage, and are "reviewing several late filed subsequent comments that have come in within the past month," FMC General Counsel Chris Hughey said at a Sept. 21 FMC meeting.

Morgan Lewis attorneys said that although the number of detentions by CBP under suspicion of Xinjiang content in the automotive and aerospace sector don't suggest there's a high risk of exposure to Uyghur labor in supply chains, importers should recognize that the issue of forced labor enforcement in the sector is not going away.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking by video link at an Atlantic Council/Atlantik-Brücke program in Berlin Sept. 22, said she remains "very hopeful that we will have something to show the rest of the world in the next six-week period" as EU and U.S. negotiators continue to try to harmonize both trade defenses and approaches to privileging trade in green steel and aluminum.

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., underscored the need to lower tariffs through the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program for American businesses during high inflation at a hearing on reforming GSP, and asked his colleagues to "move forward with open minds and the urge to get things done."

The Court of International Trade on Sept. 21 ruled in a customs classification case involving eight different categories of decorative plant parts, siding with importer Second Nature Designs on its preferred classification of two of the categories and with the government on one of the categories. Pertaining to three other categories, Judge Gary Katzmann said that there were fact questions remaining, leading the judge to deny summary judgment and advance litigation to its "second phase."