Lori Wallach, a long-time free-trade skeptic, urged listeners to her Rethink Trade podcast to call their members of Congress and say: "I am scared silly about the abuse of this outrageous de minimis loophole. What is the congressman going to do to close this loophole?"
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed CBP and Homeland Security Investigations to "provide him with a comprehensive enforcement action plan in 30 days" to protect domestic textile interests. The announcement, after a meeting with domestic textile mill owners who asked the government to step up free trade agreement enforcement and Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act apparel enforcement and to end de minimis sales, also says that report should include "a determination whether current trade law provides adequate authorities to solve the core issues."
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CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
A retail analyst at the Center for Data Innovation, a think tank that promotes using data to form policymaking, says that while bills in Congress that would exclude China and mandate more data collection for de minimis shipments could be useful, "they do not address the root problem which is that Congress did not create the de minimis exemption so that high-volume sellers could avoid import duties and customs inspections."
The House Select Committee on China is asking the Treasury Department to assess if "altering de minimis eligibility for textile and apparel and other high-risk items," such as not allowing these goods to enter under de minimis, would improve enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP will on Jan. 27 deploy an update to the timing of entry type 86 release messages in the air environment in ACE, the agency said in a CSMS message on Jan. 17. The update will modify the timing of the automatic release message for "non-express air cargo for Entry Type 86" to make sure that CBP has sufficient time to review the entries and notify filers of holds, CBP said. Specifically, release messages for type 86 entries won't be sent until a flight has arrived, rather than being sent when the flight departs, preventing entry type 86 cargo "from being released outside of port hours," CBP said in a trade information notice released last month..
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.