Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said it's a lot of work to get through the nearly 2,700 petitions that the International Trade Commission says are worthy of tariff relief through the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.

Solar importers intend to oppose President Donald Trump’s Oct. 10 proclamation ending an exemption from safeguard duties for bifacial panels (see 2010130028), they told the Court of International Trade in a status report filed Oct. 15. The proclamation runs contrary to the safeguard laws, and is barred by a CIT injunction currently in effect against the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s earlier attempts to end the exemption, they said. The brief was filed hours after a related court decision left the injunction in place.

There is “substantial evidence” MSeafood used evasion to avoid antidumping duties on imported frozen shrimp, CBP said in an Oct. 13 final determination notice released by the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA). MSeafood, a U.S. importer affiliated with Vietnamese shrimp company Minh Phu Seafood, was accused of evading an AD order on frozen shrimp from India through transshipment by the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee in 2019 (see 2001150041).

The Washington counsel for the U.S. Fashion Industry Association told members that it's not time yet to think about moving production out of Vietnam, in light of the recently announced Section 301 investigation into currency manipulation in that country (see 2010050036).

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 5-9 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

President Donald Trump signed a bill that extends provisions of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act into law on Oct. 10, 10 days after the act expired. The CBTPA, which allows tariff-free imports of garments made with U.S. fabric and yarn inputs, will be in effect for 10 years. The renewal will apply retroactively to the day it expired. “CBP is programming its systems to allow CBTPA claims for entries made after September 30, 2020,” a CBP spokesperson said. “CBP will issue a CSMS message in coming days with the programming completion date and instructions for making a claim for entries entered after the aforementioned date.”

The World Trade Organization announced that the European Union is entitled to hike tariffs on nearly $4 billion in U.S. goods due to the trade distorting effects of tax breaks for Boeing. The tariffs -- the levels of which have not been announced -- are not to go into effect immediately, but could affect civil aircraft, helicopters, tractors, chemicals, hazelnuts, wines, liquor, cotton and other products, according to a preliminary list of targets released last year.

New legislation and bigger fines are among measures mentioned in an Oct. 13 presidential memorandum aimed at stopping imports of counterfeit goods through e-commerce platforms. CBP should seize counterfeit goods imported into the U.S. and impose the “maximum fines and civil penalties permitted by law on any e-commerce platform that directs, assists with, or is in any way concerned in the importation into the United States of counterfeit goods,” President Donald Trump said in the memo.

President Donald Trump issued a proclamation Oct. 10 that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative says will end a hotly contested exemption for bifacial panels from safeguard duties on solar cells, despite a Court of International Trade injunction against its elimination that for now remains in effect (see 1912050063). The proclamation also increases the tariff applicable under the safeguard to account for bifacial panels already imported under the safeguard.

CBP should allow in-bonds to be transferred down the supply chain and “eliminate the unnecessary closure of active bonds and filing of subsequent in-bonds,” the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) said in a recommendation adopted at its Oct. 7 meeting. “A single in-bond should be able to be transferred among bonded parties, with liability for the in-bond shipment moving along with the physical transfers,” the COAC said.