A new bill from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top Republican and a Democratic member would renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act trade preference program for 16 years, offer more flexibility on country eligibility reviews, and soften the high-income graduation rules.
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of an antidumping duty administrative review on hydrofluorocarbon blends from China (A-570-028), to correct a ministerial error in its calculation for the AD rate for entries of subject merchandise from the one mandatory respondent, Zhejiang Sanmei Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., during the period Aug. 1, 2021, through July 31, 2022.
Lori Wallach, head of Rethink Trade and a longtime free-trade skeptic, said the House Ways and Means Committee plans to vote next week on a new bill to restrict de minimis, which wouldn't allow goods subject to Section 301 tariffs to enter through the de minimis pathway. The Section 301 tariffs covered roughly two-thirds of Chinese exports at the time the last round was imposed, but trade flows have shifted as a result of the tariffs, as imports of those tariff lines from China fell by 13%, according to the International Trade Commission.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she hopes "we can announce the result of [the Section 301] review soon," though she later declined to say whether that would be when she appears next week before the House and Senate committees that oversee her office.
New antidumping duties take effect retroactive to July 7, 2023, for importers of more hydrofluorocarbon blends from China, the Commerce Department said in its preliminary determination in an anti-circumvention inquiry.
A bill that directs the Biden administration to promulgate rules within 18 months to require data submissions for de minimis importers was introduced April 9 by Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., called the Ensure Accountability in De Minimis Act.
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on certain hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan (A-588-874), covering the period Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021, based on the March 26 final decision in a court case challenging those final results. Commerce calculated a revised AD rate for Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co., Ltd. of 5.2%, down from 7.72% in the original final results (see 2305030088). That new rate is applicable April 6.
CBP announced a new Enforce and Protect Act investigation, saying it has reasonable suspicion that BMF Imports evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on xanthan gum from China, and has enacted interim measures against the importer.
CBP announced a new Enforce and Protect Act investigation, saying it has reasonable suspicion that Guy & O’Neill evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on xanthan gum from China and has enacted interim measures against the importer.
DHS announced that more companies in what it called "the high-priority textile sector" should be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act's Entity List, joining the 10 already on that list -- just one item in what it's calling "a new comprehensive enforcement action plan" for textiles.