U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in responses to Senate Finance Committee members, talked about changes needed in USMCA, declined to endorse a permanent e-commerce tariff moratorium and called for more money for CBP, to address Section 301 tariff circumvention.
Texas-based syringe importer Retractable Technologies took to the Court of International Trade to contest the 100% increase of Section 301 tariffs recently imposed on needles and syringes from China. The complaint is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the duties, claiming that the tariffs could send the company out of business (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).
LONDON -- New U.S. import bans on certain connected vehicles and car components from China are just the start of a host of import restrictions the U.S. is likely to impose under its Information and Communication Technology Services-related authorities, said Meredith Rathbone, a trade lawyer with Steptoe. Rathbone also said many companies may not yet realize the extra compliance burdens the new rules will pose, adding that some importers could decide to nix certain transactions because of the challenge of gleaning information about where cars or car parts are sourced.
Trade groups representing home appliance manufacturers, automakers, apparel brands, cosmetics companies and pharmacists -- along with consumer product safety tester Underwriters Laboratory -- held the first "Shop Safely" day at a House of Representatives office building's foyer.
David Hampton, deputy executive director, Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate at CBP, told an audience at the Victims of Communism's annual China Forum that, over the next two years, CBP will be "reinvigorating our efforts to pursue penalties" with a team that's dedicated to administering penalties related to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
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The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, in a conference session preparing its members for a day lobbying on Capitol Hill, said that the NCBFAA is not arguing for or against a de minimis restriction proposal from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. The proposal would require all goods entering in de minimis to be classified with a 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule code and would bar apparel, footwear and other "import-sensitive" goods from eligibility.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission could issue next month its final rule compelling importers to submit their goods’ product safety certification electronically as part of the CPSC's partner government agency message set in ACE.
While a top CBP official didn't give any specifics on how many brokerages were suspended from a pilot that allows electronic clearance of de minimis packages (see 2405310054), he told attendees at an annual National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference not to "be afraid of that enforcement," as the brokers who were suspended were so lax that there wasn't even anything that the companies could argue about with CBP.
The U.S. will ban the import and sale of vehicles with hardware or software that facilitates communication to GPS satellites and drivers' cellphones, or software and hardware that allow driverless operation, if those goods come from China or Russia, under a notice of proposed rulemaking.