Congress will pass a spending bill before leaving next week, and while everyone wants to attach their legislation to it, the prospect for Haitian trade preferences to get a ride seems relatively strong.

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.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is hiking tariffs on Chinese solar wafers and polysilicon to 50% and Chinese tungsten products covered by Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings 8101.94.00, 8101.99.10 and 8101.99.80 will face 25% tariffs, beginning Jan. 1.

The Treasury Department’s recent delegation of its customs revenue functions to DHS “will make the regulatory process much more efficient and ensure everyone has adequate input,” acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in opening remarks at the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting Dec. 11.

Customs brokers could start to see considerable fruits of CBP's efforts to modernize ACE sometime in the next two years, according to a CBP official who spoke during a Dec. 10 webinar sponsored by the Los Angeles Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association.

Continuing Treasury Department holdups in vetting new members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, combined with a few absences, meant that the advisory body didn’t have a quorum to vote on recommendations or other motions at its Dec. 11 meeting.

The Commerce Department issued a final rule making various changes to its antidumping and countervailing duty procedures, notably altering its nonmarket economy policy in AD cases by allowing entities in third countries "owned or controlled" by nonmarket economies to be subject to the country-wide AD rate for that nation.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened a Section 301 investigation on Nicaragua's actions and practices "related to labor rights, human rights, and the rule of law," saying that it is concerned that Nicaragua's "repressive and persistent attacks" on these rights and violations of the rule of law may burden U.S. commerce.

House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., said that there will be a renewed bipartisan effort to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act next year. He called AGOA "something that is very beneficial to our U.S. trade policy." But LaHood left the door open to phasing out or changing the third-party fabric provision of AGOA in the 2025 reauthorization.

The U.S. may consider imposing new import tariffs on older generation semiconductors from China, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.