International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Court of International Trade held oral arguments on Feb. 7 in the massive litigation over the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs. During the nearly two-hour affair, Judges Mark Barnett, Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves probed the parties' positions on whether the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative complied with the Administrative Procedure Act by properly considering comments made on the proposed tariffs when imposing the duties on $500 billion of Chinese goods (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT # 21-00052).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is extending exclusions until May 15 on 81 medical products that would otherwise be subject to Section 301 duties, according to a pre-publication version of a Federal Register notice posted to its website. It also is seeking comments on whether the exclusions should be renewed past that time. The comment portal at http://comments.USTR.gov will open Feb. 6 and will close just before midnight on March 7. The exclusions had previously been scheduled to expire Feb. 28.
Fourteen Republican senators, led by Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio, wrote to the treasury secretary and secretary of state as the Cabinet officials traveled to China to meet with President Xi Jinping.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 23-29:
While CBP rulings on country of origin show there are ways to keep China in the supply chain and still avoid Section 301 tariffs, Thompson Hine attorneys, during a webinar on what to expect in trade in 2023, said that if your product is auto parts, electric vehicle battery components, chemicals, pharmaceuticals or critical minerals, your chance of avoiding tariffs or other regulatory restrictions is not great.
A lawyer, a lobbyist and a think tank scholar all agreed -- the Section 301 tariff review is unlikely to result in significant changes to the punitive tariffs on most Chinese goods.
House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said that the committee will definitely want to look into how the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is being enforced, and he expects there to be joint committee hearings on the topic.
Despite concerns from customs brokers that new provisions in CBP’s recent Part 111 final rule could hurt their client relationships, a new reporting requirement for termination of the broker-client relationship should rarely come up, and another provision on record-keeping by brokers when they discover client compliance issues carries with it some silver linings, customs experts said on a Jan. 25 webinar.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.