On May 14, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts (after not having posted new ones for a number of days) on the detention without physical examination of:

The Foreign-Trade Zones Board issued the following notices on May 15:

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized President Joe Biden's decision to hike tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles under Section 301. Once the change is implemented, a Polestar or Volvo EV would be taxed at 102.5% rather than 27.5%. Rubio, in a letter sent May 14, said the tariff on cars with internal combustion engines must be equally high, because China exported 3.7 million ICE vehicles last year, compared with 1.2 million EVs.

Full details about the Section 301 exclusion process will be revealed next week, but a White House memo said that importers of machinery in chapters 84 and 85 will need to submit requests for exclusions, even though the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative already has compiled a list of HTS codes it sees as appropriate targets for exclusions. The memo said there will be a way to register opposition to those requests, as well. The memo said the USTR "shall prioritize, in particular, exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 15 said the scope of the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand unambiguously includes dual-stenciled pipe, reversing the Court of International Trade's decision.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website May 14, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.

CBP in April identified 392 shipments valued at more than $184 million for further examination based on the suspected use of forced labor, including goods subject to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and withhold release orders, the agency said in its most recent operational statistics update. The number of shipments detained is down from March's total of 749, but the value of those shipments is sharply up from the $32 million worth of shipments detained in March (see 2404150075). Also in April, CBP seized 1,736 shipments that contained counterfeit goods valued at more than $235 million if the items had been genuine, the agency said.

CBP has released its May 15 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 19), which includes the following ruling action:

The restriction that products that owe Section 301 tariffs will not be able to avoid Column 1 tariffs through the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill could greatly reduce how much money is saved by importers.