Jamieson Greer, Trump's pick to be U.S. trade representative, told Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., that he will make sure that the appropriateness of the 2.5% tariff on cars is reviewed as part of the sunset review for USMCA. Sanders, the most famous leftist in the Senate, had pointed out in his written questions that 2.5% is not high enough to convince all Mexican exporters to follow USMCA rules of origin.
C.J. Mahoney, who led the U.S. team in renegotiating NAFTA during the first Trump administration, described USMCA as "a modest success so far," that has increased U.S. production of auto engines and transmissions, and increased factory construction in both the U.S. and Mexico.
The Commerce Department will have until May 10 to establish a process for including additional derivative steel and aluminum items to be subject to 25% tariffs -- but importers are still waiting to learn what products have already been added to the list.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP announced the results of recent global interoperability standards technology demonstrations, saying that the results will help the agency in its efforts to modernize ACE 2.0 and make it consistent with CBP's 21st Century Customs Framework.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Feb. 10 that will hike tariffs on imported aluminum to 25%, ends quota arrangements with the EU, South Korea and Brazil in steel and aluminum, and curtails both product exclusions and the exemptions for Canada and Mexico.
The Commerce Department is amending the original final results of its countervailing duty administrative review on certain new pneumatic off-the-road tires from India (C-533-870) to correct ministerial errors in the calculation of the duty rates for two mandatory respondents and companies not selected for individual review. The agency calculated new CVD cash deposit rates for the 29 companies under review, with slight changes to the original final calculations. These amended final results, effective Feb. 10, will be used to set final assessments of CVD on importers for entries during calendar year 2022.
Four senators, two from each party, reintroduced a bill that would authorize the U.S. trade representative, in consultation with Congress about objectives, to negotiate specialized trade agreements focused on critical minerals and rare earth elements. Those trade agreements also would need to get a vote of approval from Congress before they could enter into force.
Duty-free de minimis treatment is available for Chinese-origin goods again, but only until "notification by the Secretary of Commerce to the President that adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue for all Chinese products," the White House said in an amendment to its Feb. 1 executive order on China tariffs.
The abrupt change in how CBP will process low-value goods made in China because of President Donald Trump's executive order banning the de minimis exemption for these goods (see 2502030034) is causing some upheaval among shippers unfamiliar with the other types of customs processing, importers, brokers and logistics providers told International Trade Today.