The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws asked leaders at DHS, the Commerce Department, the International Trade Commission and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to protect recent hires who have been targeted for dismissal by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
The European Commission knocked down reporting that it is ready to drop its 10% tariffs on autos, and defended the pattern of trade between the EU and the U.S. in a FAQ document on the concept of reciprocal tariffs.
Correction: Steel and steel derivatives from Turkey will for the time being only face 25% Section 232 tariffs, unchanged from before President Donald Trump’s Feb. 11 proclamation upping tariffs for some countries and a new list of derivative products (see 2502140025 and 2502140066).
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President Donald Trump's plan to remove the de minimis exemption from goods made in China and Hong Kong may just be the start of a bigger push to remove that exemption from other countries, according to trade experts speaking during a Feb. 13 webinar sponsored by ShipHero, a warehouse management system provider for e-commerce and third-party logistics firms.
India and the U.S. will negotiate a bilateral trade agreement that will cover multiple sectors in tranches, with the first aiming for completion in the fall of 2025, President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in their joint statement, released after their meeting Feb. 13.
CBP has released its Feb. 12 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 7), which includes a ruling action involving the revocation of 10 ruling letters, modification of four ruling letters and revocation of treatment relating to the tariff classification of training pants. Also included are five Court of International Trade slip opinions.
Law firm ArentFox noted that the regulations promulgated by CBP on USMCA regarding textiles will take effect March 18, and cover the certificate of eligibility, rather than certificate of origin for tariff preference level imports, so CBP can track how much of the TPL has been used. The regulations also authorize CBP to visit exporters or textile producers in Mexico and Canada to see if they meet rules of origin, or "to determine the customs offenses that are occurring or have occurred at the facility." These site visits can be unannounced, but government authorities in the home country will be notified.
In a Feb. 14 email alert to members, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America warned that CBP has accepted some entries made by members even though those entries don't have proper duty calculations or new import duties on China that were mandated under President Donald Trump's executive order last week.
The EU chairman of the Committee for International Trade and a former U.S. trade representative predicted that the trade dispute between the U.S. and the EU is unlikely to subside soon due to "fundamental disagreements" over economic policy.