International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Feb. 1-5 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
More than 12.7 million counterfeit face masks were seized by CBP during fiscal year 2020, part of more than 950 seizures of either FDA-prohibited drugs or test kits, or counterfeit or fraudulent products aimed at fighting COVID-19, the agency said in its annual fiscal year report, released Feb. 4. About 51% came from China; 24% were discovered in the mail; and 53% were sent by express couriers. For general intellectual property seizures, 90% were in either international mail or express shipments.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he doesn't know when Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative nominee, might get a hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee. He told reporters on a press call Feb. 2 that it's likely that Finance will question the Health and Human Services secretary nominee ahead of Tai. He also said he doesn't know how the impeachment trial for Donald Trump could affect the timing. Grassley said he supports President Joe Biden's approach of trying to get Europe, other countries in North America, South Korea and Japan “on the same wavelength with regard to China,” and when he has the opportunity to talk to Tai, he'll be asking about “how long they're going to wait to follow up on phase two” of trade talks with China. He said he doesn't expect the issue of Section 301 exclusions to be on his list of topics to bring up. “I just haven’t had a lot of contact in the last six months with these business interests [with expired exclusions], maybe my staff has,” he said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 25-31:
Trade groups representing importers, exporters and companies involved in trade logistics are asking Congress to ask the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to retroactively extend Section 301 exclusions for products whose exclusions expired last year, automatically extend exclusion for pandemic response goods, and reinstate the exclusions process. The 166 groups, which make up the Americans for Free Trade coalition, sent a letter to Congress Jan. 29 with the requests.
CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 2101 on Jan. 12, containing 389 Automated Broker Interface records and 72 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, it said in a CSMS message. The changes reflect extensions for COVID-19 treatment Section 301 exclusions (see 2012230076) and increased tariffs on European Union goods (see 2012310010).
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories published in 2020 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference numbers.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will extend exclusions on goods used to treat COVID-19 from the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, it said in a notice posted on the agency's website. “In light of the rising spread and ongoing efforts to combat COVID-19, the U.S. Trade Representative has determined that maintaining or re-imposing additional duties on certain products subject to the action no longer is appropriate and that the application of additional duties to these products could impact U.S. preparedness to address COVID-19,” it said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 14-20:
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Dec. 7-11 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.