The bipartisan group of senators that demanded votes to terminate the emergencies that underlie reciprocal tariffs, Brazil tariffs and Canada tariffs wrote to House Speaker Mike Johnson, urging him to schedule the same votes in his chamber.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
An Indonesian jewelry company and its co-owner, along with two other employees, were charged last week with taking part in a scheme to evade over $86 million in customs duties on jewelry imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced. Two of the individuals, Indonesian national Icha Anastasia and Italian national Claudio Fogale, were arrested last week and each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud (United States v. PT Untung Bersama Sejahtera a/k/a UBS Gold, D.N.J. # 2:25-12158).
United Autoworkers labor union members from John Deere and Caterpillar visited the Commerce Department last week, asking the agency to launch a Section 232 investigation on imports of heavy machinery and equipment.
It won't be difficult for CBP to refund tariffs collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to Nicole Bivens Collinson of Sandler Travis.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said once the agreement with China on rare earth minerals is signed, he expects "that the magnets will flow freely as they did before April 4."
Congress will move toward a vote on a bill that gives the president the authority to hike tariffs on goods from countries that buy Russian energy, and directs him to prohibit banking transactions and foreign exchange transactions for Russian companies doing business with companies or banks in other countries.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 17 held that five types of medical foods imported by Nutricia North America are properly classified as "medicaments" and not as "food preparations." Judges Sharon Prost, Richard Taranto and Leonard Stark overruled the Court of International Trade's decision, which came to the opposite conclusion, finding that Nutricia's products are properly found to be medicaments under duty-free Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 3004.50.5040.
Customs brokers that filed entries after tariff exemptions on agricultural products took retroactive effect on Nov. 13 should file corrections "as soon as possible," according to a Nov. 14 cargo systems message outlining guidance on the exemptions for agricultural products (see 2511140054).
Trade experts -- including the chief negotiator for the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement -- were puzzled by language in a joint statement on the recent Korea tariff deal Nov. 15.