Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked the U.S. attorney general and Homeland Security Investigations "to prioritize Shein and Temu facilities for immediate inspections, seizures, and criminal investigations" over their counterfeits and intellectual property theft.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
EPA may be proposing an interpretation of the Toxic Substances Control Act that finds that the agency doesn't have the statutory authority to require reporting from those importing articles containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to attorneys with Bergeson and Campbell in a recent blog post on EPA's plans to amend PFAS regulations and allow certain exemptions to the scope of reporting PFAS (see 2511120028).
Manufacturing trade groups and companies mostly argued in comments to the U.S. Trade Representative that USMCA rules of origin for their sectors shouldn't change as part of the pact's review, and if they do, it should be only after extensive consultation with industry, and with adequate transition times.
The U.K. on Nov. 26 opened a public comment period for its planned elimination of duty exemptions for low-value imports. The country for several months had been reviewing whether to remove the tariff exemption for imports costing under 135 pounds, and the finance ministry said it expects to eliminate the exemption by March 2029 "at the latest."
CBP has added more parties to the list of those qualified to collect and pay duties on international mail following the end of the de minimis exemption on Aug. 29, under a July 30 executive order.
A year after the U.S. China Economic and Security Review Commission recommended that de minimis be terminated, and that normal trading relations with China be terminated, only one of its top 10 recommendations was about the treatment of imports. Its annual report for 2025 recommends that Congress ban the import of energy storage systems that have remote monitoring capabilities, if they are made by Chinese companies or their technology was licensed by Chinese companies. Most utility-scale storage batteries are lithium-ion, and 80% of those batteries are made in China.
The Council of the European Union agreed Nov. 13 to eliminate its de minimis provision, through which goods worth under $174 could enter the EU without customs duties being paid. The council said the new rule will start applying once the EU customs data hub is running, which is expected to be in 2028, since the hub is "currently under negotiation between the Council and the European Parliament as part of a broader fundamental reform of the EU customs framework." The customs data hub will allow for calculation and notification of customs debt on a "per-item basis." To facilitate a speedier implementation of the end of the de minimis provision, however, the council said it committed to work toward a "simple, temporary solution" to impose duties on goods under the de minimis threshold by 2026. No further specifics were provided.
EPA plans to amend a regulation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by allowing certain exemptions to the scope of reporting PFAS, according to a Federal Register notice.
As companies navigate the increasingly complex U.S. trade landscape, companies should "shift left" and adjust their trade compliance strategies so that potential compliance issues are caught upstream in areas such as sales, procurement and development before hitting the duty filing stage, a software developer said at the International Compliance Professionals Association conference in Grapevine, Texas, on Oct. 27.