FDA is finalizing its Laboratory Accreditation for Analyses of Foods (LAAF) framework for accreditation of laboratories for testing of food in certain circumstances, including tests to demonstrate admissibility of food detained by FDA at the border and tests used as evidence by importers seeking removal from import alert, it said in a final rule released Dec. 2.
The National Defense Authorization Act, a must-pass bill, hasn't gone to the Senate floor due to disagreement over an amendment to include the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the sponsor of that amendment, is the only reason the NDAA can't go to the floor.
The Trump administration's tariffs caused "a lot of damage to American consumers and business" and "we are no better off" after the phase one deal with China, House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said during a Dec. 2 roundtable with reporters. While not arguing that the Section 301 tariffs should be rolled back, he did say there should be an effort to "take them one by one and make some adjustments." He said there could be some Section 301 tariffs that could be changed without it being "politically toxic."
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the $800 de minimis threshold amounts to a huge loophole, and he's going to propose major changes to the law. He said that millions of packages a day enter the U.S. under de minimis, and "nobody's monitoring it. We don't know what's forced labor, what has circumvented intellectual property, counterfeit goods, drugs. CBP's getting better, but who can monitor millions of packages a day?"
A customs modernization bill discussion draft released by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., last month (see 2111030035) is unlikely to progress in 2022, the senator said in a phone interview with International Trade Today. Although the request for feedback gave a deadline of Nov. 20, the office is still hearing from the trade. "Oh, we're getting feedback," Cassidy said with a chuckle.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said his INFORM Consumers Act, which would require e-commerce platforms to verify the identity of sellers of a certain size, could pass during this Congress, given that Amazon, the most prominent e-commerce player, has blessed the language in it. Cassidy, who spoke to International Trade Today in a phone interview, said that the fact that the House and Senate have identical language in the INFORM Act also would make it easier to get it through Congress. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is the other lead sponsor of the bill.
The author of the Trade Act of 2021, which was part of the Senate's China package, said that while the Senate and House "aren't even close to a conference yet," he hopes he will be on the conference committee, and that his legislation will be part of the compromise worked out between the two chambers.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 22-26 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young, who co-led the Endless Frontier bill with Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, said he hopes to learn more soon about when conferees might be named to negotiate a compromise between the House and the Senate approaches to a China package. "I'm supposed to huddle up with Sen. Schumer today. I need to approach him. I have not had an opportunity to personally chat with him about the state of things," Young said in a brief hallway interview Nov. 30.
The World Customs Organization recently announced that the final 2022 edition of the Harmonized System tariff nomenclature is now available on its website. The new edition, which replaces the 2017 version, will take effect Jan. 1, though WCO HS Convention members must implement the changes in their own tariff schedules.