International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 23-27 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
Plastic hangers used to hold imported clothing are classifiable based on the clothing being held, CBP said in a Sept. 22 ruling. The importer, Bisma International, sought a further review of protest after CBP liquidated entries that included the hangers in subheading 6109.90.10, which covers T-shirts and other garments. Bisma argued that the plastic hangers deserved to be classified separately in a different heading. The ruling was released on Nov. 30.
A Finding Nemo story and picture book doesn't meet the classification requirements for heading 4903, which covers “Children’s picture, drawing or coloring books,” CBP said in a Sept. 15 ruling. CBP previously ruled that the book wasn't classifiable as a children's book and the company, Phidal Publishing in Montreal, requested reconsideration of that ruling. CBP's earlier ruling found the book to be classifiable in heading 4901 for “printed books.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 16-20 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. is "initiating new guidelines" to no longer allow imports from the West Bank or Gaza to be marked as “West Bank/Gaza,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a Nov. 19 news release. The changes are meant to “ensure that country of origin markings for Israeli and Palestinian goods are consistent with our reality-based foreign policy approach,” he said. Under new guidelines from State, the marking requirements for the West Bank and Gaza will recognize those places as “politically and administratively separate,” it said. State didn't say when the changes take effect.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 9-13 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP has identified three primary goals for the 21st Century Customs Framework, which has the potential to upend the approach to customs processing, said Maranda Kan, acting director of trade modernization, Office of Trade. Those goals are: “to achieve end-to-end supply chain transparency; to drive data-centric decision-making; and to diversify reasonable care standards,” she told a virtual U.S. Fashion Industry Association event Nov. 10.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 2-6 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP has some qualms with the operational aspects of ending the de minimis exemption for goods subject to Section 301 tariffs, Executive Assistant Commissioner for International Trade Brenda Smith said while speaking on the virtual Coalition of New England Companies for Trade conference on Nov. 9. There's a CBP proposal for the change that's under Office of Management and Budget review (see 2009040026). “We do have some concerns,” she said.
A Joe Biden administration is seen by many as likely to return the U.S. to a more traditional approach to international trade, but there's much still unknown about how and when an unwinding of the Trump administration's policies would occur. Biden would be able to make meaningful changes around trade regardless of whether Republicans retain Senate control, and there is an expectation that he would undertake a “review” of Trump's trade remedies, including under sections 232 and 301, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.