Canada's finance and trade ministers said that an electric vehicle purchase tax credit that excludes Canadian batteries or Canadian-assembled cars abrogates the USMCA, and they asked senators to write the tax credit differently than the House approach. That House tax credit would only be allowed for American-built cars after 2027, and would be more generous for American-built cars from 2023 to 2026.

The Generalized System of Preferences benefits program has been expired for almost a year, but Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., and Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., are suggesting that reauthorization include changes to how Competitive Need Limitations are calculated so that fewer products are removed from the tariff benefit, and so that products may be more easily restored if the import levels no longer qualify.

The Environmental Protection Agency will initially use the ACE Document Image System (DIS) to collect a new data element required for imports of hydrofluorocarbons under a recent EPA final rule (see 2109230054), it said during a webinar Dec. 9. Though most data elements collected under the agency’s new 14-day pre-arrival filing requirement are already transmitted in ACE, CBP needs more time to build the new Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number data element into its electronic filing system, EPA’s Roy Chaudet said.

There has been “major improvement” in recent weeks to ease congestion across the Port of Los Angeles, “but there’s still so much work to do,” Executive Director Gene Seroka told a Washington Post webinar Dec. 9. The profound shortage of truckers and warehouse labor in Southern California remains a severe problem that won’t ease anytime soon, he said.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act passed the House of Representatives 428-1, with only Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voting against it.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized business interests as more allied with Chinese interests than with American ones, and said that even as a Uyghur Forced Labor bill was expected to advance in the House, it wasn't much closer to becoming law.

Sang Bum Noh, owner of Los Angeles-based garment wholesaler Ambiance Apparel, was sentenced to 12 months and one day in federal prison for conspiring to undervalue imported garments and skirting millions in import duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said Dec. 6. Noh also failed to report millions of dollars in income on tax returns and failed to report large cash transactions, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The Senate confirmed Tucson, Arizona, Police Chief Chris Magnus as CBP commissioner on a vote of 50-47 on Dec. 7. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was the only Republican to vote for him. The agency hasn't had a confirmed leader since 2019.

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 29 - Dec. 3 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Build Back Better Act that passed the House will offer an additional $4,500 tax credit for American-assembled electric vehicles from union plants, and it seems likely that the Senate version will strip the unionized portion of that, given West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin's opposition. Georgia, which has two newly elected Democratic senators, also is home to a major electric battery manufacturer and a Kia plant. The Kia plant has not yet announced plans to make an electric car.