Chris Duncan, former partner at Stein Shostak, has joined Squire Patton in the international trade and foreign investment practice group in the firm's Los Angeles office, the firm announced. Prior to joining Stein Shostak, Duncan worked for 16 years at CBP as a senior attorney, most recently holding the position of assistant chief counsel in San Francisco. Duncan works on a host of customs issues, including on classification, Section 301 tariffs, valuation, country of origin and marking rules, the firm said.
The Industry Alliance for Trade EnforcementNOW, a new coalition, is asking the administration and Congress to make changes in trade enforcement to aid domestic manufacturers.
On Oct. 3, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to defend his assessment that "adequate systems were in place to 'fully and expeditiously process and collect duties for articles otherwise eligible for duty-free de minimis treatment on a global basis'" by July 30.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to expand trade actions started with the Section 232 investigation on pharmaceuticals, so that they cover generic drugs and the active pharmaceutical ingredients and key starting materials in those medicines.
President Donald Trump and Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had a "friendly" talk for 30 minutes Oct. 6, according to an unofficial translation of a Brazilian readout. Trump wrote on social media, "This morning, I had a very good telephone call with President Lula, of Brazil. We discussed many things, but it was mostly focused on the Economy, and Trade, between our two Countries. We will be having further discussions, and will get together in the not too distant future, both in Brazil and the United States. I enjoyed the call — Our Countries will do very well together!"
There will be some rapprochement on trade between India and the U.S. by the end of the year, but nothing substantive, former U.S. trade negotiators predicted during an Oct. 3 webinar.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
In the Oct. 1 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 40), CBP published proposals to modify or revoke ruling letters concerning the tariff classification of men’s outerwear jackets from China.
Think tank scholars said they think it's possible that tariffs on Chinese goods could decline by 20 percentage points after the two countries' presidents meet in a month, but that it's also possible that tariffs could soar again if President Donald Trump is angered by China's support for Russia, Iran or aggression toward the Philippines.