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 subcommittee that covers intellectual property issues under the House Judiciary Committee questioned how Congress should address the escalating volume of de minimis packages -- and the opportunities those shipments provide for sending counterfeits and goods made with forced labor, but the CBP witness responsible for de minimis and IP declined to back any of the ideas that were bandied about.
Automakers and their trade groups cautioned the Bureau of Industry and Security to tailor its restrictions narrowly -- and allow a phase-in -- if they want manufacturers to stop buying information technology components from China for cars with advanced features, including electric cars.
Canadian Solar, which is ramping up a 5-gigawatt solar panel manufacturing factory in Texas, told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that tariff rate quotas on solar cells under the current safeguard action and Section 301 tariffs on machinery that helps make solar panels and cells are harming solar manufacturers. Canadian Solar also is working on opening a solar cell plant in Indiana, but it won't open until late 2025. It imports cells made in Thailand. The TRQ only allows five gigawatts' worth of tariff-free cells in annually.
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 Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force is responsible for naming companies that are known to use Uyghur forced labor, including through labor transfers to other regions of China. But FLETF member and Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Thea Lee said she hasn't seen an effective way of monitoring those labor transfers, though the U.S. government believes they are growing.
Perkins Coie partner Michael House told an audience of automotive supply chain professionals that this fiscal year has seen not only a sharp increase in the number of detentions, "but even more important, in our view, is the scope of products being detained has diversified, and there's been a steady increase in detentions of merchandise that were outside those original so-called priority sectors."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants CBP to investigate the role of slave labor in goods being sold over retail apps Temu and Shein, he said in an April 16 letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Rubio asked that CBP investigate the exporters and, if necessary, add them to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s Entity List, which keeps track of companies that sell merchandise produced with slave labor. Both companies have abused the de minimis provision to get goods tainted by forced labor into the U.S., the senator said.
The House Ways and Means Committee is set on April 17 to consider several just-introduced trade bills, including a retroactive extension of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, new restrictions on de minimis and restrictions on electric vehicle tax credits.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters: