China published its 2026 tariff plan this week, outlining new rates for hundreds of commodities while lowering duties on other items, the country's Ministry of Finance said Dec. 29, according to an unofficial translation.
The White House said it has made an agreement with Israel to offer permanent concessions on some agricultural products, the outlines of which were first established in 2004, but since there needs to be more time to make the permanent modifications, it is offering one more year of duty-free access.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 22-28:
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.
A notice from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to be published in the Federal Register Dec. 29 says that goods from Nicaragua that don't qualify for the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) should be entered beginning Jan. 1 under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9903.89.01. That tariff number doesn't add any duty past the most-favored nation rate, but the goods also are subject to the reciprocal tariff of 18%, which is applied by HTS heading 9903.02.47.
Importer Blue Sky the Color of Imagination filed a complaint on Dec. 22 in a customs case at the Court of International Trade on the classification of its planning calendars. The complaint comes on the heels of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejecting the trade court's previous ruling in a separate case brought by Blue Sky that classified the importer's goods as diaries under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 4820.10.2010 (see 2512040019) (Blue Sky the Color of Imagination v. United States, CIT # 22-00008).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that while China has been burdening U.S. commerce with its non-market practices to develop its semiconductor industry, it won't be hiking Section 301 tariffs on Chinese chips until June 2027.
CBP should write a report on whether self-initiation of cases under the Enforce and Protect Act "would allow CBP to pursue more circumvention cases and extend existing investigations deeper into supply chains fully and whether such authority would result in greater enforcement," wrote the Senate Appropriations Committee, in its instructions to CBP as part of its DHS annual appropriations bill. It directed the agency to compile the report within 90 days of the bill's enactment.
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.
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.