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 Commerce Department is amending the final results of an antidumping duty administrative review on steel nails from Oman (A-523-808) based on the final decision in a court case challenging those final results.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
International Trade Commissioners grappled with how they should fulfill the administration's request for a report on the export competitiveness of the Bangladeshi, Indian, Cambodian, Indonesian and Pakistani apparel sectors over the last 11 years -- is it to uncover how those countries' successes could offer lessons to other developing countries that want to industrialize? Is the success of Bangladesh, which is near to crossing the threshold into a middle-income country largely on the strength of its garment sector, a country with an "unnatural and unfair advantage," because of its suppression of unions and wages, as the AFL-CIO's Eric Gottwald asserted?
FedEx rejected Prosperous America CEO Michael Stumo's characterization of the company as being involved in drug trafficking. Stumo on March 6 accused both FedEx and UPS of being "drug mules" (see 2403060089), because they are conduits for fentanyl entering in the de minimis environment. The company "has extensive security measures in place to deter and detect the use of our networks for illegal purposes, and we have a long history of close collaboration with law enforcement and regulatory authorities to quickly identify and prevent unlawful uses of our networks," a FedEx spokesperson said. "This includes illegal shipments such as illicit fentanyl."
A bipartisan bill has been introduced that would set country-by-country de minimis levels, instruct the administration to reconsider U.S. tariffs "with the focus on the principle of reciprocity" for most favored nation rates, and open a dialogue with Mexico and Canada on allowing Costa Rica and Uruguay to join USMCA.
Both co-sponsors of a bill to restrict Chinese goods from de minimis eligibility said that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., who has the power to advance the bill, is interested in marking up the bill.
CBP has “cleared” its long-awaited proposed rule on low value shipments, and the proposal will now go to the Office of Management and Budget for review, acting Commissioner Troy Miller said at a Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting March 6. If OMB declares the rule “significant,” the proposal will then go for interagency review prior to publication in the Federal Register, Miller said.
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.
In FY 2024 so far, more than 485 million packages have entered the U.S. under de minimis, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said in a March 1 statement. That continues an upward trend from 1.05 billion de minimis shipments in all of FY 2023, which was an increase of 53% from the 685 million de minimis shipments in FY 2022, he said.