International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from March 1-5 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The recent focus on forced labor has also created some trade facilitation problems, both of which appear unlikely to go away under the Biden administration, said Paul Rosenthal, a lawyer with Kelley Drye, during the virtual International Trade Update hosted by Georgetown Law on March 9. Rosenthal was asked about the corporate compliance difficulties following CBP forced labor enforcement actions, particularly in countries that the company isn't directly connected to. “The shift has been away from concern about U.S. manufacturing interests to social interests” involving child and forced labor, he said. “And I don't see that shifting. In fact, I see that continuing and accelerating and I think one the big issues” for the administration “will be how to balance those interests,” he said

CBP posted a new fact sheet on the process for modifying or revoking withhold release orders issued out of suspicion that forced labor was used in the supply chain of imported goods. The fact sheet follows a recent Government Accountability Office report that recommended that CBP provide more information on the subject (see 2103010042).

The coming weeks will mark some important deadlines in the Section 301 litigation inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade after months of inertia. New complaints keep trickling in at the rate of about one a day to join the roughly 3,500 on file beginning since mid-September, virtually all seeking to get the lists 3 and 4A Chinese tariffs vacated and the duties refunded. Many thousands more importers are represented in the filings.

House Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., told an online audience that over the next four months, the U.S. government is going to set the stage for a trade program that supports environmental goals. Blumenauer, a longtime environmentalist, said he's not concerned that the European Union will dictate the terms of a carbon border adjustment mechanism, since its politicians have a head start. “We’ve had preliminary discussions, we’re going to have more,” he said during a webinar March 5 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on environment and trade.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will extend exclusions on goods used to treat COVID-19 from the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, the USTR said in a notice on its website. The exclusions were previously set to expire at the end of March (see 2012230076).

Tariffs that the U.S. imposed on billions of dollars' worth of European imports to punish them for excessive subsidies to Airbus, and tariffs that the European Union imposed on billions of dollars' worth of U.S. exports over Boeing subsidies will be lifted for four months, the two sides said in a joint statement March 5. No date was given for the start of the temporary removal.

The Court of International Trade's recent decision denying first sale valuation for cookware importer Meyer Corp. likely won't lead to the end of first sale treatment for goods originating from non-market economies, said customs lawyers in interviews. Despite broader questions raised by CIT Senior Judge Thomas Aquilino, it's unlikely that courts will do away with first sale for non-market countries entirely, but the decision does highlight the burden of demonstrating eligibility for first sale, lawyers said.

CBP is investigating possible antidumping and countervailing duty evasion by 15 separate quartz surface products importers, the agency said in a notice posted March 4. The allegations of evasion under the Enforce and Protect Act came the Cambria Company and its lawyer at Schagrin Associates, and CBP consolidated the cases together. The importers were said to have used transshipment through Malaysia to avoid the AD/CV duties on the quartz surface products from China. Even among consolidated EAPA investigations, it's unusual for so many importers to be named.

The Senate Finance Committee unanimously voted March 3 to forward to the full Senate the nominations of Katherine Tai for U.S. trade representative and Wally Adeyemo for deputy treasury secretary.