Law firm ArentFox noted that the regulations promulgated by CBP on USMCA regarding textiles will take effect March 18, and cover the certificate of eligibility, rather than certificate of origin for tariff preference level imports, so CBP can track how much of the TPL has been used. The regulations also authorize CBP to visit exporters or textile producers in Mexico and Canada to see if they meet rules of origin, or "to determine the customs offenses that are occurring or have occurred at the facility." These site visits can be unannounced, but government authorities in the home country will be notified.
More than a fifth of House Democrats, led by Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., asked President Donald Trump to reconsider broad tariffs on Canada and Mexico because of the inflationary impact they would have on housing construction.
President Donald Trump's recent expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs likely would survive a judicial challenge, particularly in light of the string of cases challenging the Section 232 duties imposed during his first term, trade lawyers told us. Thomas Beline, partner at Cassidy Levy, said Trump's move to eliminate the country-specific arrangements and product exclusions is "likely defensible," since the statute lets the president take any action he deems necessary where an agreement is "not being carried out or is ineffective."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., one of the leading voices in the House to end de minimis for e-commerce, said she wants President Donald Trump to remove all e-commerce from de minimis, so that it goes back to its original purpose of covering tourists' purchases. Given international direct-to-consumer shipping, "It’s become a vast gap in our customs regime," she said, causing a "flood of impossibly low-priced products that put American manufacturers out of business," and making it "almost impossible to enforce the ban on goods made with forced labor."
Jamieson Greer, Trump's pick to be U.S. trade representative, told Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that he will make sure that the appropriateness of the 2.5% tariff on cars is reviewed as part of the sunset review for USMCA. Sanders, the most famous leftist in the Senate, had pointed out in his written questions that 2.5% is not high enough to convince all Mexican exporters to follow USMCA rules of origin.
C.J. Mahoney, who led the U.S. team in renegotiating NAFTA during the first Trump administration, described USMCA as "a modest success so far," that has increased U.S. production of auto engines and transmissions, and increased factory construction in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The Commerce Department will have until May 10 to establish a process for including additional derivative steel and aluminum items to be subject to 25% tariffs -- but importers are still waiting to learn what products have already been added to the list.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP announced the results of recent global interoperability standards technology demonstrations, saying that the results will help the agency in its efforts to modernize ACE 2.0 and make it consistent with CBP's 21st Century Customs Framework.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Feb. 10 that will hike tariffs on imported aluminum to 25%, ends quota arrangements with the EU, South Korea and Brazil in steel and aluminum, and curtails both product exclusions and the exemptions for Canada and Mexico.