CBP has “cleared” its long-awaited proposed rule on low value shipments, and the proposal will now go to the Office of Management and Budget for review, acting Commissioner Troy Miller said at a Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting March 6. If OMB declares the rule “significant,” the proposal will then go for interagency review prior to publication in the Federal Register, Miller said.
Sen. Josh Hawley wants the baseline tariff on cars made by Chinese companies to be 100%, not 2.5%, and to apply whether those cars are assembled in China, Thailand, Brazil, Hungary or Mexico.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Feb. 27 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
Allowing large numbers of electric vehicles from Chinese companies assembled in Mexico would be an "extinction event," warned the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a nonprofit co-founded by large domestic manufacturers and the United Steelworkers union.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said both retroactivity and the length of renewal are being debated as lawmakers try to reach consensus on re-authorizing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program.
Tin-plated brass strips imported by Cooper Plating and then made into plumbing parts before being exported are eligible for temporary importation under bond under subheading 9813.00.05, CBP said in a recent ruling. However, while they undergo the required processing to qualify for TIB treatment, they are subject to the USMCA "lesser of duty rule" for similar reasons, CBP said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has asked Mexico whether RV Fresh Foods in Uruapan is denying its workers the right to collective bargain. The firm, which makes guacamole, is the first food manufacturer targeted through the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism. COCENA, a Mexican union confederation, alleges that the company restricted the union's access to the facility and intervened in union delegate elections.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet March 6 remotely and in person in Charleston, South Carolina, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by March 1.
Consultants and associations that support international trade in Africa, Asia, Western Europe and the Western Hemisphere agreed that the shift in trade policy in the U.S. has trading partners questioning whether America will meet its commitments, or, in the words of the German Marshall Fund's Heather Conley, enter a "nationalistic economic crouch" that will be difficult to end. The panel spoke at a Washington International Trade Association event Feb. 12.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative seeks a second round of comments in connection with its biennial review of the operation of the USMCA "with respect to trade in automotive goods" (see 2311210026), following a hearing the agency held on Feb. 7 (see 2402050066), it said in a notice. Post-hearing comments are due by Feb. 28. In the review, USTR and the Interagency Committee on Trade in Automotive Goods are considering how USMCA rules affect the competitiveness, employment and investment in North America's automotive sector. USTR is required to publish a report on the subject every two years.