Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has traditionally been a defender of the current law on de minimis (see 1907300048), said that while he's not up for lowering the $800 threshold, he would be willing to change the low value import process to combat fentanyl, as the White House is proposing.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 22-28:
Higher or new Section 301 tariffs on lithium-ion batteries for EVs, lead-acid battery parts, golf-cart like EVs, electric cars, vans and buses, plug-in hybrids, ship-to-shore cranes, solar cells, solar panels, syringes, needles, three categories of disposable masks, 26 critical minerals, more than 100 HTS codes covering iron and steel products, and 31 aluminum HTS codes, all on imports from China, will not go up on Aug. 1, as originally announced two months ago (see 2405220072).
Upcoming changes to Section 301 tariffs won’t begin to take effect Aug. 1, as was proposed by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in May. After receiving over 1,100 comments on its notice of proposed changes, the USTR now says it expects its final determination will be issued in August but with the actual tariff changes taking effect about two weeks after USTR “makes the final determination public.”
Senate appropriators marked up a bill that would spend $2 million more a year on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and $4.1 million more on the International Trade Commission, in each case matching the president's budget request.
A coalition of business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the E-Merchants Trade Council, the National Foreign Trade Council and the Express Association of America, is pushing back against the de minimis legislation that was approved in the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this year, arguing that it would be "a massive cost to the federal government," shift trade to the mail, and create congestion at airports and a wave of abandoned packages.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of July 8-14 and 15-21:
Revenue from a 10% tariff on all U.S. imports could be offset by a tax cut, and together the two could result in an increase in incomes that would more than offset inflation caused by the tariff hike, according to an analysis released by the Coalition for a Prosperous America on July 24.
A recently introduced bill would create a 10-year tariff exemption for bicycle parts, with importers required to certify and document to CBP that the parts were used in the assembly of bicycles in the U.S. to qualify for the exemption, according to the text of the bill, released July 24.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in a long acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention July 18, said Chinese companies are building large automobile factories in Mexico, and that "the United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen." He also said their leader "should be fired immediately, and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing, and we’re going to bring it back fast."