Although U.S. traders would widely welcome the U.S. rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, industry officials are disappointed with the country’s lack of urgency on the trade pact and don't expect the Biden administration to prioritize the deal before its term ends. While they said mini trade deals, such as the 2020 agreement with Japan (see 1912050058), can serve as “short-term” bandages, they aren’t nearly enough to make up for the benefits U.S. traders would have received under TPP.
Ian Cohen
Ian Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, is a reporter with Export Compliance Daily and its sister publications International Trade Today and Trade Law Daily, where he covers export controls, sanctions and international trade issues. He previously worked as a local government reporter in South Florida. Ian graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Florida in 2017 and lives in Washington, D.C. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2019.
CBP will no longer classify shipments of certain used vehicles from the U.S. to Puerto Rico as exports, CBP said in an Aug. 24 message. Although the change will eliminate some filing requirements, others will remain, including certain Electronic Export Information filings.
The Federal Maritime Commission this week issued a series of long-awaited recommendations to address issues in the international freight delivery system that have been exacerbated over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendations, which resulted from Commissioner Rebecca Dye’s fact-finding mission that began in March 2020, aim to minimize barriers to Shipping Act enforcement and better allow the FMC to “facilitate prompt and fair dispute resolution,” Dye said July 28.
The Justice Department and Federal Maritime Commission signed the first-ever memorandum of understanding between the two agencies to foster better cooperation on enforcement and oversight of competition issues in the ocean shipping industry, the agencies said July 12. The MOU creates a “framework” for the two agencies to discuss “enforcement and regulatory matters” involving unreasonable carrier practices, an increase in large carrier alliances and other practices that are hurting U.S. importers and exporters (see 2102170060). Under the MOU, which was encouraged by President Joe Biden’s executive order last week (see 2107090056), officials from the FMC and the Justice Department’s antitrust division will “confer” at least once annually, according to the MOU.
Former U.S. trade officials are optimistic the Biden administration can revitalize a mini trade deal with India that was originally proposed under the Trump administration (see 2009010049). But they also said U.S. officials will likely look to add more provisions to any deal, including ones that address labor and climate issues.
The Commerce Department has reduced its backlog of Section 232 aluminum and steel exclusion requests and is granting decisions more quickly, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said May 6. She said the agency averages about 50 days to grant an exclusion from the date it receives the request.
Shipping regulations should be revised to allow the Federal Maritime Commission to better address unfair detention and demurrage fees, agricultural export issues and a range of other shipping problems at U.S. ports, FMC Chair Daniel Maffei said. While he didn’t propose any concrete changes, he said he is “frustrated” with the situation at the nation’s ports and is speaking with Congress about potentially proposing regulatory changes. “I'm not prepared to go into any details now, but I do think that some things clearly need to be clarified,” Maffei said during a May 5 National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference. “There are many, many areas where the law is vague or so outdated because it simply was written mostly in the time of tariffs, and now it's mostly contracts.”
Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo said it’s “fair” to expect changes to U.S. tariffs against China, but the administration hasn’t yet made a final decision. Raimondo, speaking during a meeting of Commerce’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, said the administration is still undergoing its review of China policies and decisions will be made along with other agencies, including the State Department.
The maritime shipping industry is struggling to find a short-term solution to the unprecedented congestion occurring at U.S. ports, which continues to impose large costs on traders and further clog the global supply chain, industry representatives said. Although work is being done by the Federal Maritime Commission and Congress to provide relief, they said many of those efforts will do little to ease port issues in the near future.
For weeks, dozens of container ships have dotted the waters of California's San Pedro Bay, waiting to unload at a port experiencing its highest level of congestion in years. With no space to drop their cargo, the ships sit in limbo, further slowing imports and exports and clogging a global trading system that some shippers view as broken.