CBP will in 2023 begin testing two projects under the DHS Silicon Valley Innovation Program (SVIP) “that will connect CBP with trade users,” the agency said in a document released ahead of an upcoming meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. The projects are being used to “verify some ACE 2.0 concepts” to inform CBP’s development of ACE 2.0, “which could begin as early as 2025,” CBP said.
Lawyers from BakerHostetler that represent the Conseil de l’industrie forestière du Québec and the Ontario Forest Industries Association are using a Commerce Department comment process for softwood lumber subsidies to argue once again that the countervailing duty case against Canadian lumber exports contradicts the USMCA Environment Chapter commitments and Biden administration environment and social justice priorities.
CBP reminded importers that the second phase of the pocket bag fabric rule for apparel will take effect under USMCA on Jan. 1, extending the rule to apparel made from blue denim, in a CSMS message. “This provision applies to woven apparel goods of [Harmonized Tariff Schedule] Chapter 62 that are made of blue denim fabric of HTS subheadings 5209.42, 5211.42, 5212.24 and/or 5514.30, which contain a pocket or pockets,” CBP said. “If applicable, the pocket bag fabric must be formed and finished in the territory of one or more of the USMCA countries,” from yarn that “was wholly formed and finished in the territory of one or more of the USMCA countries.” The first phase of the rule -- which applies to apparel goods under chapters 61 and 62 of the tariff schedule that contain a pocket, but not to apparel of blue denim -- has been in effect since Jan. 1, 2022.
CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) will next meet Dec. 7 in College Park, Maryland, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by Dec. 2.
If the U.S. position on calculating the regional content of automobiles prevails in a USMCA state-to-state dispute, Baker McKenzie associate Eunkyung Kim Shin predicted, companies would be likely to import more parts used to assemble the automobiles. Shin, who spoke at a Baker McKenzie webinar Nov. 15, said that when the entire value of a part counts toward the vehicle regional content threshold once that part meets its own rule of origin, it makes sense to build the part in Mexico, the U.S. or Canada. But if the non-local content of those parts is not disregarded when doing vehicle-level calculations, it might be cheaper just to import the parts from a lower-cost country, she said.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's website Nov. 10, 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 a final rule updating its Part 102 rules of origin to account for recent changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S., in particular the World Customs Organization’s major five-year updates implemented in 2017 and 2022.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's website Nov. 9, 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.
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.
Major automakers and battery makers disagreed about how granular the EV battery supply chain rules should be, but most agreed that diverging from the battery timeline requirement, which begins in 2023, would allow far more vehicles to qualify for tax credits, thereby accelerating adoption of cleaner cars, trucks and SUVs.