The subcommittee that covers intellectual property issues under the House Judiciary Committee questioned how Congress should address the escalating volume of de minimis packages -- and the opportunities those shipments provide for sending counterfeits and goods made with forced labor, but the CBP witness responsible for de minimis and IP declined to back any of the ideas that were bandied about.
Electric vehicle manufacturers in North America will get an extended phase-in on North American content rules for battery materials that are not yet practical to trace, as well as graphite and some critical minerals which, according to the Inflation Reduction Act, were supposed to preclude tax credits for car buyers next year.
Representatives from the domestic textiles industry testified at an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hearing May 2 regarding ways to promote supply chain resilience, especially after many were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2404290057).
In the first third of its first public hearing on promoting supply chain resilience, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and interagency officials heard from groups disputing the premise of the project -- that liberalizing trade was harmful to U.S. workers and manufacturing -- and from those who say the worker-centered trade approach of the Biden administration is not going far enough to restore American manufacturing.
Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, just after telling an appropriations committee member that CBP's staff "need help in the de minimis environment," told her that there are legislative proposals, that if they were to pass, "allow us to actually bring that level [of shipments] down to a manageable level for us."
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The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's president told the U.S. trade representative that customs brokers and others in the trade community aren't "pro forced-labor, pro-pollution, pro-unsustainable environmental practices," but that too often, "‘race to the top’ objectives do not take into consideration the ability to actually implement the policies, and the costs associated with the goals."
The Commerce Department abused its discretion by denying an exporter’s supplemental questionnaire extension request amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s 2021 delta variant wave, Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden ruled April 25. He pointed out that, by the time of the rejection, three of Simec’s key accountants had died of the disease and a fourth was "hospitalized and intubated."
Suspension of liquidation and countervailing duty cash deposit requirements won't take effect until further notice for Sociedad Nacional de Galapagos C.A., Naturisa S.A., Holding Sola & Sola Solacciones S.A., and Empacadora Champmar S.A., the Commerce Department said in a notice released April 24 amending its preliminary determination in its CVD investigation on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador (C-331-806). The agency also is amending the all-others rate for Ecuador it set in the April 1 preliminary determination (see 2403290027).
A bipartisan bill led by a House Ways and Means Committee member would allow warehouses and brands located in foreign trade zones to send goods that were imported into the zones to consumers and have those packages qualify for de minimis treatment.