Congress may want to assert itself on trade in softwood lumber, whether by codifying higher tariffs to protect the U.S. lumber industry, or by pushing for a new softwood lumber agreement to end trade remedies. A Dec. 30 Congressional Research Service report also said that Congress could commission a report "on the benefits and costs of softwood lumber duties for the U.S. economy."
For a company to use laboratory reports submitted to CBP to protest the agency's finding on the material composition of an imported good, it must establish a prima facie case sufficient to overcome CBP’s presumption of correctness, CBP said in a Nov. 4 ruling that nonetheless granted an importer's protest based on CBP re-testing.
Although geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainties abound heading into 2026, it's unlikely that port volumes at the Port of Los Angeles next year will be "falling off a cliff," the port's executive director, Gene Seroka, said during the port's monthly media briefing last week.
USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service is seeking comments on whether it's necessary and appropriate to establish additional terms and conditions for sugar imports, including the potential impact that changes to those terms and conditions might have on the domestic sugar industry, according to a Federal Register notice. Comments are due by Jan. 14.
The Court of International Trade erred in ruling that importer Blue Sky The Color of Imagination's planning calendars are diaries under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 4820.10.2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held on Dec. 4. Judges Alan Lourie, William Bryson and Raymond Chen said the trade court violated the principle of stare decisis by skirting the CAFC's prior interpretation of the term "diary."
Specialty crop interests testifying at the first of three days of hearings on UMSCA Dec. 3 disagreed on whether duty-free access for Mexican imports should continue, and protectionists' arguments were echoed by Global Trade Watch.
A Wisconsin federal court on Dec. 1 dismissed a case from a former prisoner at the Nunan Chishan Prison in China against Milwaukee Electric Tool and its parent company, Techtronic Industries, for allegedly importing goods made with forced labor. Judge Brett Ludwig of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin held that the civil remedy of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which is the statute the prisoner sued under, doesn't apply to conduct occurring outside the U.S. (Xu Lun v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp., E.D. Wis. # 24-803).
Since the United Kingdom's National Health Service has agreed to pay more for new medicines, the Trump administration is pledging "to exempt U.K.-origin pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical ingredients, and medical technology from Section 232 tariffs and will refrain from targeting U.K. pharmaceutical pricing practices in any future Section 301 investigation for the duration of President [Donald] Trump’s term."
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 26 granted the government's motion for rehearing in a customs dispute on the classification of certain radial, web and chordal segments imported by Honeywell and used in airplane brakes, changing the classification of the parts to "fabrics" under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 6307. Judge Mark Barnett reversed his previous holding that the goods are "parts of an aircraft" under heading 8803, subjecting the items at issue to a 7% duty under subheading 6307.90.98.
The Congressional Budget Office updated its estimate of how much tariffs would reduce the federal deficit, if they stayed in place for 10 years, now saying they would reduce it by $2.5 trillion rather than $3.3 trillion (not counting saved interest costs).