The U.S. and Canada nearly reached a trade agreement before the airing of an anti-tariff advertisement drew the ire of President Donald Trump, according to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a Dec. 18 interview.
House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere Chairwoman Maria Elena Salazar, R-Fla., asked a State Department official to press Mexico to stop accepting Cuban doctors' services, which she says is human trafficking. Salazar held a hearing on Mexico's relationship with its neighbors this week in the subcommittee.
A bill to impose a carbon border adjustment was reintroduced in the House and Senate this week. The Clean Competition Act is sponsored by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse D-R.I., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee.
A bill to allow goods headed for export to Mexico and Canada to avoid tariffs on imported components was introduced this week by five House Republicans and one Democrat.
A California customs broker was sentenced on Dec. 18 to 51 months in prison for defrauding importers, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced. Frank Seung Noah owned and operated customs brokerage Comis International and also was ordered to pay $7,579,141 in restitution.
CBP has released its Dec. 17 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 47), which includes the following ruling action:
In the Dec. 17 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 47), CBP published proposals to revoke ruling letters and revoke treatment relating to the tariff classification of glass cold brew coffee makers and teapots with stainless steel filters or infusers.
A bipartisan bill to increase financial pressure on Russia to stop its aggression in Ukraine no longer gives the president the authority to hike tariffs on countries like Turkey, China and Hungary that purchase Russian oil and gas. The original approach was to give the president the ability to impose tariffs as high as 500% on those countries' exports; he has hiked tariffs on Indian goods by 25 percentage points over the issue.
Ceratizit USA, a North Carolina-based tungsten carbide distributor, agreed to pay $54.4 million to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by "knowingly and improperly failing to pay duties owed on tungsten carbide products" from China, DOJ announced.
The EU is aiming to expand the scope of its upcoming carbon border tariff to apply to 180 steel and "aluminium-intensive" products produced downstream.