DOJ's criminal division has identified trade fraud as a top priority, assigning its market integrity and major frauds unit to handle tariff evasion cases, a DOJ official confirmed to us. The official said that the major frauds unit is shifting resources to trade and looking to cases involving "long-running frauds, senior executives, and large volumes of alleged losses from unlawful tariff evasion schemes."
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.
President Donald Trump said the trade deal he and Indonesia's president reached will provide U.S. exporters "full access," access exporters never had.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said that Indonesian goods will face a 19% tariff as part of a deal he previewed on social media earlier in the day. That is much lower than the 32% he had threatened in a recent letter. He also said U.S. goods will face no tariffs in Indonesia.
The Port of Los Angeles could experience one last import surge ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline for the White House's potential rate increases on its reciprocal tariffs, port Executive Director Gene Seroka said during the port's monthly cargo briefing.
National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said July 13 on ABC's "This Week" that the president is not satisfied with "some sketches of deals that had been negotiated with {Commerce Secretary] Howard Lutnick and the rest of the trade team, and the president thinks that the deals need to be better, and to basically put a line in the sand, he sent these letters out to folks. And we'll see how it works out."
The Court of International Trade on July 10 heard oral argument in importer Detroit Axle's case against President Donald Trump's decision to end the de minimis exemption for Chinese goods. Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif and Jane Restani pressed counsel for both the U.S. and the importer on whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act enables the president to take such action, given the specific language at play in both IEEPA and 19 U.S.C. 1321, the de minimis statute (Axle of Dearborn, d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Dep't of Commerce, CIT # 25-00091).
In the July 9 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 28), CBP published proposals to revoke ruling letters concerning the tariff classification for tuna and rice kits.
It remains unclear how the U.S. will apply a new 30% Aug. 1 tariff rate for Mexico that President Donald Trump announced over the weekend in one of his tariff letters.
The Commerce Department is launching a pair of Section 232 investigations into imports of drones and polysilicon from China, according to notices released July 14. Comments are due on Aug. 6 for polysilicon and its derivatives and for drones and their parts.