As customs brokers seek to employ artificial intelligence, expect government regulators to observe but not necessarily hand down heavy-handed guidance on using AI tools to conduct customs business, according to trade and AI experts International Trade Today interviewed.
A new Section 301 investigation on Chinese legacy chips may lead to a tariff regime that could create havoc, according to Sidley Austin's Ted Murphy, who specializes in trade and customs.
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.
A bipartisan, bicameral bill would create a Maritime Security Trust Fund, into which revenues would come from tonnage fees on Chinese-owned and Chinese-flagged ships visiting U.S. ports, special tonnage taxes, light money, and tariffs and duties, including Section 301 tariffs.
President-elect Donald Trump announced his plans to nominate Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden to be deputy secretary of agriculture. Vaden joined the court in 2020 after working in Trump's first administration as USDA's general counsel. Posting the announcement on Truth Social, the president-elect said that at the agency, Vaden "relocated and reorganized the Agencies that comprise the Department to better serve Rural America, and engaged in substantial regulatory reform."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened an investigation into Chinese manufacturing of legacy (or foundational) semiconductors, "including to the extent that they are incorporated as components into downstream products for critical industries like defense, automotive, medical devices, aerospace, telecommunications, and power generation and the electrical grid."
The House of Representatives voted 366-34 to fund the government through mid-March, as the Republican majority dropped a debt ceiling provision it tried to pair with the slimmed down spending bill on Dec. 19.
President-elect Donald Trump, in a social media posting Dec. 20, wrote: "I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!"
After Elon Musk whipped up opposition to the spending bill, and President-elect Donald Trump came out against it, the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives issued a slimmed down spending bill that cut out trade issues, such as renewing the Haiti trade preferences through 2030, and creating outbound investment restrictions for China. The bill, which would fund the government at current levels through mid-March, also raises the debt ceiling for two years.
More than a dozen groups are asking President-elect Donald Trump to bolster intellectual property protections within the first 100 days of his presidency as part of a wider effort to combat counterfeit trade, they said in a Dec. 19 letter.