Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said that when Republicans meet privately with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai ahead of her testimony March 30, they will argue that the Section 301 exclusions announced last week (see 2203230070) were far too limited.
The Commerce Department is amending the final results in a countervailing duty administrative review on certain cut-to-length carbon-quality steel plate (CTL plate) from South Korea (C-580-837), covering entries during the calendar year 2018 review period, it said in a notice released March 25. It said its revision to the countervailable subsidy rate assigned to Hyundai Steel Company is due to a recent court judgment that affected the way it calculated the rate.
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.
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act is part of the House China package, and a Senate version is going to have a markup next week. House co-sponsor Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said the bill's advocates need senators "to be able to punch this into the end zone."
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.
CBP should recognize imports of goods under the $800 de minimis threshold as entries, as a way to help prevent low value goods made with forced labor from coming into the U.S., the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to DHS on implementing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. "By treating the commercial de minimis exemption instead as an entry of merchandise, the Government can continue to promote the administrative ease that section 321 affords legitimate gift and personal use shipments, while also ensuring goods imported under the commercial de minimis exemption are eligible and admissible and pose no threat to our country’s economy, safety, health, or security and particularly are free of forced labor," the trade group said.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., speaking at an event about his proposal to remove Chinese exports' eligibility for de minimis, suggested that if the provision does not pass as part of a compromise China package, he's got a Plan B. The language in his bill says that de minimis won't be available to any non-market economy that's on the priority watch list. "Now, coincidentally, that's just China," Blumenauer said with a grin during the Rethink Trade webinar March 9.
CBP is working on some new guidance for the withhold release order aimed at silica-based products from Hoshine Silicon Industry in Xinjiang, China (see 2108030026), said Eric Choy, acting executive director of the Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate. Choy and other agency officials spoke on a March 4 webinar that was later posted to the Solar Energy Industries Association website. "We are working through our own administrative procedures here right now to make sure it meets the administrative requirements" to post on the agency's site, he said.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the author of the trade provisions within the House China package, said that a virtual conference committee has begun discussing a compromise between the House and Senate bills. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is making it harder to find the time to make progress, he said. There has been no public announcement that the chambers weren't going to use a formal conference committee (see 2202020055), or that negotiations had begun.
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association is asking House and Senate leadership to "expeditiously advance" a compromise China package by resolving differences between the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (America Competes) Act.