A State Department notice declaring that all agency efforts to control international trade now constitute a "foreign affairs function" of the U.S. under the Administrative Procedure Act will ultimately be subject to the discretion of the courts, trade lawyers told us.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick asked a top executive at Norsk Hydro a few weeks ago when the company would open a primary aluminum smelter.
Customs brokers and importers are still grappling with how to comply with the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives that went into effect just after midnight on March 12 (see 2503120054).
Reps. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., and Lizzie Fletcher, D-Texas, re-introduced a bill that would require the Treasury Department to study to what degree the tariff system is regressive, or hurts lower-income consumers more than more well-off consumers, and to what extent women's apparel faces higher tariffs than men's apparel.
Two Democrats and two Republicans in the Senate asked the administration to press Canada on changing how it administers tariff rate quotas for U.S. dairy exports as it approaches a renegotiation.
Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., introduced a bill that would direct the International Trade Commission to do an investigation on the effects of the 25% and 10% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, including on consumer prices, and the impact on small businesses and farmers, including due to retaliation from those countries, within a year of enactment. The bill lays out the sectors to be covered, and also asks the ITC economists to estimate the impact on domestic jobs and investment.
Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Ind., introduced a private bill to allow a company that imported golf cart tires to reliquidate the entries years later, so that they can recoup nearly $2 million.
CBP has created Harmonized System Updates 2510 and 2511. HSU 2510, created on March 10, contains 43 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 17 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. HSU 2510 includes the latest adjustments on imports of steel and aluminum into the U.S.
Nicholas Lamp, academic director of international law programs at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, told an audience of lawyers at Georgetown Law School that he questioned the premise of the panel he was speaking on -- that Canada and Mexico's approaches to trade with China would influence the future of USMCA.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. will "shortly" respond to EU retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskey with a 200% tariff on EU alcoholic beverages, including wine and champagne, if the EU whiskey tariff -- set to take effect April 1 -- isn't removed.