On Nov. 13, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts (after not having posted new ones for a number of days) on the detention without physical examination of:
The FDA has revised aspects of the agency's Voluntary Qualified Importer Program that could result in lower user fees, according to a Nov. 14 release.
The Senate Appropriations Committee issued its proposal for funding the Department of Homeland Security, asserting its bill could get the bipartisan support needed to pass that chamber. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has previously said he would prefer to delay spending decisions until next year, when the House, Senate and White House will have Republican majorities. However, some observers believe Republicans would be better served by passing during the lame-duck session appropriations for the fiscal year that goes through September, freeing up Congress to spend its time in 2025 on the massive tax bill and other policy Trump administration priorities (see 2411120026).
House Select Committee on China Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., proposes increasing tariffs on nearly all Chinese goods to at least 35% and raising tariffs on "strategic goods" to 100%, with exceptions only for goods that are currently sourced only from China.
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 Nov. 13, 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 created Harmonized System Update 2415 on Nov. 13, containing 16,156 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 5,000 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. The update details 2024 cotton fee updates (see 2409130022). The HSU also reflects flagging updates to several HTS records, where the AM7 flag is being removed from 1,700 records involving organic products (see 2410170035). This removal process began Oct. 18, and another update message will indicate when the process is complete.
NEW YORK -- The executive director of CBP's Office of Trade Relations told U.S. Fashion Industry Association conference attendees this week that CBP thought crossing the 1 billion de minimis packages threshold was big, but then volume increased about 40% in the 2024 fiscal year. Felicia Pullam said CBP cannot handle that kind of massive increase and is confident it's stopping dangerous contact lenses, vapes, toys with lead paint, counterfeit airbags, medicines and other illicit goods.
NEW YORK -- Brian Hoxie, director of CBP's Forced Labor Division, told an apparel industry conference audience this week that DHS has been hearing their pleas for more transparency in forced labor enforcement.
Restrictive trade measures from 20 of the world's leading economies "significantly increased" over the past year, the World Trade Organization found in its 31st Trade Monitoring Report. While the Group of 20 countries also imposed 141 trade facilitating measures, the report said that from October 2023 to October 2024, G20 nations imposed 91 new trade-restrictive measures covering around $828.9 billion worth of goods, up from about $246 billion worth of goods in the last report, which covered restrictions imposed from mid-May to mid-October 2023.