International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Questions about how to define date of arrival and when the 15-day window to file a cargo release dominated CBP’s Oct. 1 call with the trade on issues related to the labor strike at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports.
A labor strike at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports appears poised to occur just after midnight on Oct. 1, despite any last-ditch efforts as of press time to prevent the strike from occurring.
The Commerce Department's International Trade Administration Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has published a new 12-month cap on duty- and quota-free benefits for imports of apparel articles assembled in beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries using regional and third-country fabric.
Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat representing a district with a majority of Donald Trump voters, has introduced a bill to impose a blanket 10% additional tariff on all imports, an echo of Trump's original proposal. The former president later said he might impose a 20% tariff on those imports.
A hearing about the Time to Choose Act, a bipartisan bill that would ban consultants and other service providers from working both with the U.S. government and Chinese-owned companies, Senate Homeland Security Committee ranking member Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he agreed with a witness who said it could create a slippery slope.
CBP has released its Sept. 25 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 38), which includes the following actions, including one ruling revocation:
Texas-based syringe importer Retractable Technologies took to the Court of International Trade to contest the 100% increase of Section 301 tariffs recently imposed on needles and syringes from China. The complaint is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the duties, claiming that the tariffs could send the company out of business (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).
Three Republican senators reintroduced a bill to end permanent normal trade relations with China, and to set tariff rates of at least 35% for Chinese goods, if the Column 2 tariffs are not that high, as well as 100% tariffs on 38 pages of Harmonize Tariff Schedule lines enumerated in the bill.
A bill to require the Justice Department to establish a trade-crime task force, and to allow for parallel criminal and civil enforcement actions, passed the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. The bill, called the Protecting American Industry and Labor from International Crimes Act, was sponsored by the leaders of the House Select Committee on China and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, another China committee member.