The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is proposing to amend its regulations on imports of equines, it said. Changes would include increasing the number of days horses exported from regions free from contagious equine metritis (CEM) are allowed to spend in CEM-affected regions before re-entering the U.S. without testing from 60 to 90 days, and new requirements for an import permit for horses transiting through CEM-affected regions. Comments are due Jan. 28.
After Switzerland banned flights from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, the World Trade Organization had to postpone the 12th Ministerial Conference that was due to start Nov. 30. A news release from Nov. 26 quoted Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala saying that the travel restrictions would have put delegations from Southern Africa at a disadvantage. "She pointed out that many delegations have long maintained that meeting virtually does not offer the kind of interaction necessary for holding complex negotiations on politically sensitive issues," the release said.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach again postponed a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers, the two ports announced Nov. 29. The ports originally said they would begin imposing the fee Nov. 15 (see 2111030027) but have postponed it several times (see 2111150054). The fee will now "not be considered prior" to Dec. 6, the ports said.
FDA is adding importers to its import alert for those not in compliance with the Foreign Supplier Verification Program at an ever-increasing rate, with more than half of importers subject to import refusal under the alert added within the last three months.
The International Trade Commission will recommend an extension to Section 201 safeguard tariffs on solar cells that began in 2018, it said Nov. 24. The commission found the safeguard “continues to be necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury to the U.S. industry, and that there is evidence that the domestic industry is making a positive adjustment to import competition.” The ITC said it will submit a report by Dec. 8 to President Joe Biden, who will make a final decision on whether to extend the safeguard duties. Unless extended, the safeguard will expire Feb. 6, 2022.
More than $14 billion worth of Chinese raw cotton and cotton and cotton blend textiles was exported in 2019 from five major textile companies with ties to Xinjiang forced labor, according to a recent British study, conducted with the help of international scholars and Chinese reviewers and partly funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The study, called "Laundering Cotton: How Xinjiang Cotton is Obscured in International Supply Chains," analyzed shipping data from Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Cambodia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Pakistan, Kenya, Ethiopia and the U.S., tracing how goods went from China to one of those countries directly, or from China to Hong Kong to the foreign factory location, and then from there, to U.S. shelves.
The U.S. will not impose 25% tariffs on 26 tariff headings from India, which had about $119 million of exports to the U.S. in those categories in 2019, over India's digital services tax, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Nov. 24.
A protest supplement filed by an importer may not be considered by CBP as a supplement but should be accepted as a new protest, CBP said in a recent ruling. Though the supplement was too late because it came after the relevant protest was denied and addressed an issue not included under the original protest, the supplement otherwise met all requirements for protests filed by CBP, the agency said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 15-19 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal agreed to continue working to resolve outstanding trade issues "to reach convergence in the near future," according to a joint statement released Nov. 23 at the conclusion of the India-U.S. Trade Policy Forum (TPF) in New Delhi. Both countries discussed wanting better treatment of their exports. "India highlighted its interest in restoration of its beneficiary status under the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences program; the United States noted that this could be considered, as warranted, in relation to the eligibility criteria determined by the U.S. Congress."