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.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., introduced the Trade Cheating Restitution Act of 2025, which would allow interest on antidumping and countervailing duties collected since 2000 on commodities like honey, crawfish, garlic and mushrooms to be distributed to domestic producers of those products.
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.
The U.S. declined to prosecute a criminal trade fraud case against global plastic resin distributor MGI International and its subsidiaries Global Plastics and Marco Polo International, DOJ announced on Dec. 18. The agency agreed to credit a $6.8 million payment made by MGI to settle a civil case against the company for knowingly failing to pay customs duties on plastic resin entries from China in its decision not to proceed with a criminal investigation for the same conduct.
Importer Wanxiang America agreed to pay over $53 million to settle claims that the company unlawfully avoided antidumping duties on its car part entries, DOJ announced. The settlement was filed at the Court of International Trade and resolves the government's customs penalty case against Wanxiang in which it was seeking $97 million from the company (see 2512180043).
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 issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Dec. 18, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.
CBP has released its Dec. 17 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 47), which includes the following ruling action: