Pilot Freight Services, a logistics and customs brokerage service provider, acquired DSI Logistics, Pilot said April 6 in a news release. DSI is a “non-asset based provider of last-mile home delivery and installation for heavy and hard to handle goods,” it said. Terms of the deal, which closed March 31, weren't released.

The Aluminum Association, which never asked for 10% tariffs on primary aluminum, is asking the administration to lift the tariffs on countries that are committed to market-based trade, while working on multilateral efforts to curb trade-distorting industrial subsidies. At the same time, the group wants federal investment for domestic aluminum capacity, and to maintain Section 301 tariffs on aluminum imports. The association also wants reforms to the 232 exclusion process.

BDP International purchased DJS International, a Dallas customs brokerage and freight forwarding company, BDP said in an April 6 news release. “Trade compliance continues to be filled with new complexities and challenges; it’s a major focus area for our customers and therefore it was a natural fit to extend our reach in this area of expertise,” BDP CEO Rich Bolte said. “We’ve always had a significant presence in the US Gulf region but with DJS we can provide a wider array of specialized and customized solutions for our customers in this new normal world.” DJS will continue to operate as a subsidiary of BDP, the company said. Terms of the deal weren't released.

The U.S.-Bangladesh Business Council aims to increase trade between the two countries, as Bangladesh is expected to graduate from the least-developed countries list by 2026. The U.S. is the largest importer of Bangladeshi products, and imported not quite $7 billion in 2019, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. A launch program hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said that Bangladesh imported more than $1 billion in American agricultural products.

A former international trade commissioner warned that as government works to make supply chains more resilient, it's important that the private sector is listened to, and that the solution is passed in Congress, rather than through an executive order, which increases the chances of yo-yo'ing policy as administrations change.

The American Association of Port Authorities said that $17 billion dedicated to ports is “a substantial down payment on the $29 billion in federal investments necessary to modernizing our ports and ensuring that our trade infrastructure remains strong.” It said that more than a quarter of U.S. GDP is connected to imports and exports through the seaports.

Alcohol trade groups and the retailers and restaurants that sell alcoholic beverages are asking for the tariffs on distilled spirits in connection with the Section 232 tariffs to be lifted and the pause in tariffs on wines and spirits in the aircraft subsidy case to be made permanent. Calling themselves the Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition, the 47-member coalition made the call March 23. They noted that European countries continue to tax bourbon and whiskey at 25%, and that that rate is set to double on June 1, because of U.S. tariffs on British and European Union-made steel.

Digital services taxes and Boeing-Airbus disputes need to be cleared away, but in just a few months, another potential trade friction between the U.S. and the European Union may arise, according to a recent think tank study on the trans-Atlantic economic relationship. The Wilson Center said the European Commission intends to release a carbon border adjustment mechanism proposal this summer, so the U.S. and EU consultations have no time to waste. “Because the EU and the United States are each other’s largest commercial partners, driven by significant mutual investments forming dense interlinkages across both economies, it will be important for the parties to work together to devise WTO-compatible CBAMs,” the study said.

A scholar at the market-oriented Mercatus Center, a research organization at George Mason University, said that although 25% tariffs on steel and 10% tariffs on aluminum have now been in place for three years, there's no sign they've successfully reduced global overcapacity in those metals. Christine McDaniel, a senior research fellow at the center, cited a Wall Street Journal article that found that the steel industry was not revived by the price protection from imports. McDaniel wrote in a research paper that the administration should be asked what it would achieve to leave the tariffs in place indefinitely. But if they are to stay, McDaniel said the exclusions process should be reformed.

Imports of major high-demand consumer tech goods waned somewhat in January from December, but most categories remained far ahead of their January 2020 volume, according to Census Bureau trade statistics accessed March 9 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. It’s unclear whether the retreat in January shipments in major Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) tech categories was the result of global semiconductor shortages that impeded supply or were perhaps the first signs that torrid COVID-19 pandemic-era consumer demand for home connectivity and entertainment tools evident through most of 2020 was beginning to run its course.