USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing imports of Phalaenopsis spp. orchid plants from Germany and the Netherlands to the U.S., provided that the plants are in approved growing media and have met all relevant requirements listed in USDA's Plants for Planting Manual and "detailed in a bilateral workplan." The changes take effect July 22.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested the White House may be in favor of a bill that would authorize new sanctions and tariffs against Russia’s supporters, and he urged the EU to put in place similar measures.
The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, who, like the chairman, represents a state where logging is an important part of the economy, said the U.S. and Canada should return to a quota system to resolve the softwood lumber irritant.
The U.S. filed its reply brief in the lead case on the legality of President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, arguing, among other things, that the Court of International Trade doesn't have the power to issue a nationwide injunction vacating the tariffs and that IEEPA plainly allows the president to impose tariffs (V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, Fed. Cir. # 25-1812).
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website July 18, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, speaking on CNBC, did not say for sure that tariffs will go up on Aug. 1 on trading partners, but said, "I would think that a higher tariff level will put more pressure on those countries to come with a better agreement."
Although potential reciprocal tariff increases have been pushed back to Aug. 1, ocean spot rates between Asia and the U.S. West Coast have been falling, suggesting a relaxation in demand for shipping containers, according to two companies tracking ocean rates.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register July 18 on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CVD rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of the countervailing duty administrative review on utility scale wind towers (wind towers) from Malaysia (C-557-822) covering the period Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022, that were published June 16, to correct a ministerial error in a calculation, which results in a lower CVD cash deposit rate for a mandatory respondent to the review.