Associations' views diverged widely on the wisdom of codifying a modified Type 86 process and tweaking the clear-from-the-manifest process for de minimis entries. Groups also disagreed on CBP's proposals for what new data should be submitted. The agency received 95 comments on its proposal, though dozens were from individuals and didn't make substantive suggestions. Some associations and companies addressed both this proposed rule and the one that would carve out sections 301 and 232 goods from de minimis. The comment period for that rule closes March 24.
When the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked for comments on policies that reduce U.S. exports, most agricultural trade associations -- and a few companies -- laid out their concerns about tariffs or sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers that prevent their exports from reaching their potential.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Federal Maritime Commission has asked a group of major ocean shipping carriers to provide it with more information about an amendment to an agreement that would allow them to participate in the New York Shipping Exchange index governing board, “which shall discuss and agree on all aspects of the development, implementation, modification and auditing of container freight indices, as produced by NYSHEX,” the FMC said in a notice released March 14. The commission said its notice prevented “the proposed amendment to this agreement from becoming effective as originally scheduled” on March 12. The parties to the agreement are carriers CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, COSCO Shipping Lines, COSCO Shipping Co., HMM, Maersk, and Ocean Network Express.
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) from Mexico (A-201-844), covering the period Nov. 1, 2019, through Oct. 31, 2020, based on a recent decision in a court case challenging those final results. Commerce calculated a revised AD rate for Grupo Simec, which affected the review average rate for Grupo Acerero S.A. de C.V. (Grupo Acerero), and Sidertul S.A. de C.V. (Sidertul). The AD rate for all of the respondents changed to zero percent.
Roll and Harris, a law firm specializing in customs law, put out a newsletter alerting clients that they should not assume that they can amend an entry to say that Canadian or Mexican goods qualify for USMCA if their initial entry summary didn't.
The Commerce Department has published amended final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China (A-570-016), originally published April 26, 2019, to align with a partial judgment in a court case that challenged a rate in those results.
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit will "substantially upend" the International Trade Commission's established approach to determining whether a company's U.S. operations are part of the domestic industry, lawyers from Ropes & Gray said.
Nicholas Lamp, academic director of international law programs at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, told an audience of lawyers at Georgetown Law School that he questioned the premise of the panel he was speaking on -- that Canada and Mexico's approaches to trade with China would influence the future of USMCA.
The EU and Canada announced retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. this week, targeting billions of dollars' worth of American exports in response to what they said were unjustified global 25% steel and aluminum duties imposed by the Trump administration. Other nations also criticized the U.S. tariffs as they mulled countermeasures of their own.