The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said further decoupling from China is certain if China doesn't do more to step up on industrial subsidies, intellectual property rights protection, trade secret theft and other U.S. companies' priorities. Myron Brilliant, head of international affairs for the Chamber, told reporters on a Jan. 13 call that there's not much political space for incoming President Joe Biden to roll back tariffs, even as his campaign was critical of the economic consequences of the trade war.
CBP’s new regional withhold release order on cotton and tomato products from China’s Xinjiang region presents new enforcement challenges for the agency, which is working on technological capabilities to be able to track origin for third-country goods made from imports covered by the WRO, CBP officials said on a call with reporters Jan. 13.
Congress should revise the customs penalties statute to allow for injunctions against importers that bring in goods that violate the law, the Department of Homeland Security said in recommendations posted Jan. 13. “Due to the high volume of shipments, the lengthy penalty process, a penalty structure based solely on value, and the reliance on private entities to enforce parts of the enforcement structure, many counterfeiters willingly incur the cost of a seized shipment or paying a penalty when the U.S. Government interdicts a shipment,” DHS said. That is why “Congress should amend Section 526(f) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1526) to allow for the United States to seek an injunction against the importers of violative merchandise,” it said. “In addition, a civil penalty threshold to match the criminal penalty threshold should be created.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Jan. 4-8 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A Republican congresswoman who has been the biggest critic of the Section 232 exclusion process told National Foreign Trade Council webinar listeners that, “I’m hoping for the best under this administration. We’ve suffered a lot under [Section] 232 and 301.” Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., added that “I can’t wait to see it start unraveling.” Walorski, who claimed Jan. 12 that “we were kind of in this battle” with President Donald Trump over the broadness of the China tariffs, voted against certifying Biden's Electoral College victory last week.
National Foreign Trade Council panelists addressing the future of U.S.-China relations agreed that the political climate won't allow President Joe Biden to reverse the Section 301 tariffs on China, even though they think those tariffs haven't been effective in achieving their goal of changing the competitive playing field with Chinese firms.
End uses and channels of trade matter for determining whether processing removes a product from the scope of antidumping and countervailing duties on stainless steel sheet and strip from China (A-570-042/C-570-043), according to a Commerce Department scope ruling issued Nov. 24. The agency found that the flywheel housings imported by Concept2 for use in its exercise machines are not covered by the AD/CVD orders, despite sharing the same physical characteristics as the subject merchandise.
A multi-station conveyor system used for assembling internal combustion engines should be classified based on the workstations and not the conveyors, CBP said in an Oct 2. ruling. The importer, Sanyo Machine America, through its lawyer at Neville Peterson, asked CBP to review its denial of a protest involving the assembly system. The goods were imported unassembled from Japan and originally entered under heading 8428 as “other lifting, handling, loading or unloading machinery.” CBP subsequently reclassified the system under heading 8479, as “machines and mechanical appliances [that] have individual functions not specified elsewhere.”
Goods stored in a foreign-trade zone that are sold to customers in Canada and subsequently returned in the same condition don't require duty payments if duties were already paid, CBP said in a Dec. 16 ruling. Long Tall Sally Limited asked CBP about how changes under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act to the provisions for returned goods in subheading 9801.00.10 apply. The statute doesn't specifically differentiate between “previously imported and entered with duty paid (i.e., domestic status), or imported without duty paid (i.e., foreign privileged status),” CBP said.
The Commerce Department on Jan. 4 ruled automotive frame crossmembers made from extruded aluminum are covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968), in what a domestic aluminum group calls a “huge victory for our industry.”