Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and 40 other House Democrats are asking Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas "to crack down on the de minimis trade loopholes allowing cheap fast-fashion products to flow into the U.S."
CBP reminded members of the trade community that starting March 1 the agency will require self-certification statements to be uploaded to the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) for non-industrial diamonds with a weight of 1.0 carat or greater, diamond jewelry and unsorted diamonds, in a CSMS message on Feb. 29. The Office of Foreign Assets Control banned Russian diamonds of those types in February to comply with an executive order signed in December that prohibits the importation of diamonds, fish and seafood if they were produced "wholly or in part" in Russia, CBP said (see 2402080081 and 2312260061).
The Commerce Department is set to exempt more safes from its antidumping and countervailing duty orders on metal lockers from China (A-570-133/C-570-134), it said in a notice announcing the initiation and expedited preliminary results of a changed circumstances review.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 19-25:
The Court of International Trade on Feb. 26 issued an amended decision in a customs case on the tariff classification of five categories of chrome-plated plastic automobile parts after initially deciding the case Dec. 18. The new decision adds a discussion of axle covers, the fifth category of goods, finding them to fall under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8708 pursuant to General Rule of Interpretation 1.
CBP has released its Feb. 21 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 07), which includes the following ruling actions:
CBP sent a questionnaire earlier this month to solar companies asking how they're guarding against the use of forced labor in their supply chains. The agency asked about the origins of solar modules, panels and related products, according to a draft of the survey obtained by Bloomberg. CBP wants invoices and other documents from distributors, wholesalers, exporters and resellers, as well as organizational charts and locations of production facilities.
CBP plans in FY 2024 to test the ability of ACE 2.0 to issue credentials, verify the origin of the credentials, and send data to partner government agencies through "tech demos" focused on e-commerce, food safety and natural gas trade using "global interoperability standards," the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee said. The COAC, in an ACE 2.0 Working Group issue paper on Feb. 26, said that in September CBP successfully tested global verifiable credentials and decentralized identifier standards with demos of steel and pipeline oil trade (see 2309130025).
Allowing large numbers of electric vehicles from Chinese companies assembled in Mexico would be an "extinction event," warned the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonprofit co-founded by large domestic manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union.
The Treasury Department posted new FAQs to its website on recently announced, additional bans on imports of diamonds from Russia (see 2402080081). One FAQ details a ban on imports of diamond jewelry and unsorted diamonds that originate or were exported from Russia that will take effect March 1. Another FAQ includes information on bans of non-industrial diamonds mined or produced in Russia that have been substantially transformed in other countries. That ban takes effect March 1 for diamonds with a weight of one carat or more, and Sept. 1 for smaller diamonds of 0.5 carat or more. A third FAQ details the actions Treasury has taken since 2022 to restrict imports of diamonds from Russia.