CBP issued filing instructions in a CSMS message for goods eligible for the Generalized System of Preferences treatment after the GSP benefits program expires at the end of the year. As in previous GSP lapses, filers would continue to use the GSP special program indicator to flag their entries, but would have to pay duties at the normal, non-preferential rate for any imports with a time of entry during the lapse. GSP is currently set to expire Dec. 31 if the program isn’t extended by Congress. GSP renewal didn't make into year-end spending legislation, so expiration is likely (see 2012210040).

New licensing requirements for aluminum products are now set to begin Jan. 25, 2021, under a Commerce Department final rule creating a new Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. Similar to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System in place since 2005, the new scheme requires importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then submit the license number with entry summary documentation.

The Generalized System of Preferences and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill will expire at the end of the year, as neither provision moved with the end-of-year spending bill and COVID-19 relief package.

Foreign-trade zone users will no longer be able to claim tariff benefits under USMCA when the products manufactured in those zones meet the free trade agreement's rules of origin. However, none of the producers had yet been able to avoid tariffs on inputs, National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones CEO Erik Autor told International Trade Today Dec. 21, as there had been no administrative process at CBP to implement the change.

Customs brokers, after many years of lobbying (see 09021315), won a change to the treatment of duties transferred to them by importers that later go bankrupt. The brokers had argued that these duties should not be subject to clawback provisions under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, where payments to vendors within 90 days can be seized by the bankruptcy courts for redistribution.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, told International Trade Today that he doesn't expect the Senate to vote on the bill as part of the year-end legislative package.

CBP should work with the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee to “clarify the types of audits or reviews to which trusted trader partners may be subject regarding compliance, including forced labor,” the COAC Trusted Trader Working Group said in a recommendation that was approved during the Dec. 16 COAC meeting. Working group co-chair Alexandra Latham said CBP last month began Risk Analysis & Survey Assessments (RASAs) around forced labor (see 2012020046).

Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, said he's glad House Ways and Means Committee chief trade counsel Katherine Tai is the nominee for his old job, because he thinks “that will help with moving an agenda forward vis a vis Congress.” Portman was one of eight former USTRs speaking on a webinar Dec. 17 hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A small deal that would restore India's Generalized System of Preferences benefits is something that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal have made headway on, Lighthizer said while speaking to the Confederation of Indian Industry. “My guess is we are not far away from a deal like that. Keep in mind, obviously, we have a political change going on over here and that’s going to be a bit of a setback, certainly, to the extent that I can facilitate that, which I would be happy to do it, but there is going to be some changes and my guess is that is going to slow things up,” he said Dec. 16 during an online interview.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., told International Trade Today that lawmakers are still working on renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. “GSP's a little bit stickier,” he said, adding that the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and GSP both “seem to be stalled.”