Project 2025 recommends combining CBP's Office of Trade and Office of Trade Relations with the Office of Field Operations in order to “achieve streamlined operations and increase OT’s capacity and capability by leveraging OFO’s expansive resources,” according to the Project 2025 chapter on its recommendations for DHS.
The European Commission will delay its first wave of retaliatory tariffs against the U.S. from April 1 until mid-April, commission spokesperson Olof Gill said in a statement March 20. Gill said the tariffs were delayed to "align the timing" of the EU's two sets of retaliatory actions announced last month (see 2503120042).
National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones Chair Shannon Fura, a founder of Chicago law firm Page Fura, said the language in President Donald Trump's recent executive orders creating new tariffs, which say that goods must pay tariffs before entering FTZs, "are handcuffing some of the benefits" that FTZs are designed to provide.
CBP has updated a list that provides all the recommendations passed by the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC). The list includes recommendations offered since the 14th term meeting in April 2016.
CBP on March 19 released guidance on 10% tariffs on Canadian energy goods in the form of a spreadsheet that lists commodities and their respective tariff subheadings that could be subject to the additional 10% tariff, rather than the 25% tariff applicable to other non-USMCA Canadian goods. Attached to a CSMS message, the spreadsheet includes not only petroleum products, uranium, coal and biofuels, but also rare earths covered by the 10% tariffs and metals of chapters 72, 73 and 76 that are alloyed with rare earths, among other things.
CBP will very soon release a FAQ on some outstanding issues related to complying with the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives, particularly derivatives outside of chapters 73 and 76 (see 2503140059), according to a CBP official speaking during CBP's bi-weekly ACE trade support call.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 10-16:
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.
Even Flexport's advisors are stumped over how exactly to declare a value for the aluminum or steel content for affected derivative products (see 2503140059), based on comments made during a webinar hosted by the company March 18.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered some clarity on the promised April 2 tariffs but, when pressed, didn't elaborate on vital details. He said that reciprocal tariffs would take the form of a number that the Trump administration "believe[s] represents their tariffs," but said he wasn't sure if tariffs would layer on top of Section 232 tariffs.