The U.S. trade deficit with goods to China fell by $5.5 billion in March, reflecting a drop in all top categories of U.S. imports from China, according to recent data from the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission. March exports to China were 4 percent lower than one year ago, while imports declined 13 percent from last year, the Commission said in its monthly review of U.S.-China trade data. The steepest import declines were in miscellaneous manufactured commodities, and computer and electronic products. On the export side, agricultural products and chemicals declined, the former by more than 34 percent compared to March 2012. Exports in transportation equipment, machinery and computer and electronic products all increased from last year.
The CBP April 10 Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 16) proposes to revoke its treatment of whether hydrating and pitting prunes counts as a manufacture for drawback purposes. CBP previously considered that process to be a manufacture, but recently said otherwise in a response to an internal advice request from Sunsweet Growers. Sunsweet Growers imports prunes, which, upon importation, are steamed or cooked to be hydrated and then pitted and placed under a laser scanner that detects pit fragments, it said. The prunes maintain the same nutritional content following the hydration and pitting, the company said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 8-12 in case they were missed.
CBP issued its April 10 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 16), which contains notices of the following ruling action:
The American Association of Exporters and Importers (AAEI) joined the chorus of customs groups asking for removal of AD/CVD section from the still-under-discussion House customs reauthorization bill, saying the section should be removed “so it does not slow down passage of this important legislation.”
CBP drawback offices began accepting amendments to existing 1313(j) waiver of prior notice (WPN) privileges April 5, as long as the claimant submits documentation to support the applicable drawback program related to the amendment, CBP said in a notice (here). CBP approves WPN privileges for either 1313(j)(1) (direct identification unused drawback) or (j)(2) (substitution unused drawback). It said the existing approval will be updated to include the additional 1313 (j) type and will apply to drawback claims that meet the statutory timeframes.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 25-29 in case they were missed.
Customs reauthorization legislation, introduced March 22 in the Senate, aims to streamline CBP’s drawback process through electronic claim filing and the establishment of objective eligibility requirements. The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2013, sponsored by Senate Finance Committee leaders Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, is very similar to CBP reauthorization legislation previously introduced in both the House and Senate (see 13032610).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
A new CBP reauthorization bill is expected to materialize in the coming months, say industry stakeholders, who are pushing for some changes to the CBP bills introduced last year but say they support those bills overall. The House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees are accepting comments on the two bills introduced in December: HR-6642 and HR-6656, which, other than language on antidumping and countervailing, are nearly identical. Observers pointed to new non-resident importer requirements and the severity of penalties allowed for providing inaccurate importer security filing data as parts of the bills they would like changed.