LONDON -- New U.S. import bans on certain connected vehicles and car components from China are just the start of a host of import restrictions the U.S. is likely to impose under its Information and Communication Technology Services-related authorities, said Meredith Rathbone, a trade lawyer with Steptoe. Rathbone also said many companies may not yet realize the extra compliance burdens the new rules will pose, adding that some importers could decide to nix certain transactions because of the challenge of gleaning information about where cars or car parts are sourced.

David Hampton, deputy executive director, Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate at CBP, told an audience at the Victims of Communism's annual China Forum that, over the next two years, CBP will be "reinvigorating our efforts to pursue penalties" with a team that's dedicated to administering penalties related to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

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The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, in a conference session preparing its members for a day lobbying on Capitol Hill, said that the NCBFAA is not arguing for or against a de minimis restriction proposal from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The proposal would require all goods entering in de minimis to be classified with a 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule code and would bar apparel, footwear and other "import-sensitive" goods from eligibility.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission could issue next month its final rule compelling importers to submit their goods’ product safety certification electronically as part of the CPSC's partner government agency message set in ACE.

The U.S. will ban the import and sale of vehicles with hardware or software that facilitates communication to GPS satellites and drivers' cellphones, or software and hardware that allow driverless operation, if those goods come from China or Russia, under a notice of proposed rulemaking.

While a top CBP official didn't give any specifics on how many brokerages were suspended from a pilot that allows electronic clearance of de minimis packages (see 2405310054), he told attendees at an annual National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference not to "be afraid of that enforcement," as the brokers who were suspended were so lax that there wasn't even anything that the companies could argue about with CBP.

A subgroup of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee Secure Trade Lanes Subcommittee laid out eight recommendations for how to beef up communications among CBP's Centers of Excellence and Expertise, brokers and other trade entities amid growing pressures at CBP to be vigilant over forced labor, antidumping and other threats.

A Department of Treasury official acknowledged Sept. 18 that “personnel changes in the Treasury Security Department” are creating a backlog in the process of appointing additional members to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee.

Former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, who was a Republican representative from Michigan, told a think tank audience that the lame duck session of the current Congress is likely to be consumed with government funding negotiations, and that leadership is unlikely to put a vote on the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program on the calendar, no matter its logic, unless members of both legislative bodies actively lobby the leaders of his former committee and the Senate Finance Committee.