A free-trade senator shrugged off President-elect Donald Trump's promise to put 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican goods, Canadian politicians scurried to convince Trump it can satisfy his demands, and Mexico's president alternately scolded and offered cooperation to the president-elect.

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.

President-elect Donald Trump will most likely either turn to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) or Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to impose his recently announced tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, said trade lawyers interviewed by Trade Law Daily. Though much remains unknown about how Trump will impose these tariffs, the president-elect may turn to the two broad statutes to impose the tariffs to accomplish his stated goals of curbing the flow of migrants and fentanyl into the U.S.

Customs brokers expressed concern about a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada and a 10% additional tariff on China that President-elect Donald Trump announced in a Nov. 25 Truth Social post, citing uncertainties about how U.S. importers would be able to afford bond stacking and if they would be liable financially for the imports, among other issues.

The Court of International Trade ruled Nov. 26 that it has jurisdiction over all denied protests of CBP detention decisions -- even if the government claimed that the Drug Enforcement Administration, not CBP, chose to make the seizure. CBP has the final authority over all detentions, making all detentions protestable under U.S. law, CIT Judge Timothy Reif held in his opinion.

President-elect Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary nominee, hedge fund CEO Scott Bessent, has talked about tariffs as a way to "escalate to de-escalate," with the goal of "getting rid of all the tariffs."

There are now 107 companies flagged by U.S. regulators for using forced labor or sourcing materials from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, with the inclusion of 29 more companies, DHS said.

Todd Owen, who served as executive assistant commissioner for field operations at CBP for about five years before retiring in 2020, argued that hundreds of millions of dollars for technology upgrades, and staffing expansions, would be more helpful to catch contraband in the small package environment than removing Chinese goods or other restrictions.

Although some trade attorneys have been worrying that a Trump administration will discourage a Republican Congress from bringing back Generalized System of Preferences program tariff breaks for developing countries, members of the House Ways and Means Committee did not endorse that point of view.

EU ministers this week officially adopted a ban on products made with forced labor, marking one of the final steps in a yearslong lawmaking process designed to eliminate EU imports, exports or other sales of those goods (see 2404230048 and 2403050035). The new regulations will apply about three years after publication in the Official Journal of the EU.