The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative heard from business groups, businesses that offer traceability solutions and civil society groups, 45 in all, on how to shape a forced labor strategy -- but their views diverged strongly on what the approach should be.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
About quarter of the comments on how to implement an executive order on possible anti-circumvention duties on solar panel and cell imports say that the executive order is illegal or, at best, legally strained, and that Commerce cannot waive duty collections because that is contrary to its mission to protect domestic manufacturing through trade remedies.
CBP affirmed a February determination that found substantial evidence of evasion of countervailing duties and antidumping duties on wooden cabinets from China by two importers, after a review of the case, according to a recently released notice.
As automakers lobby for a longer phase-in for requirements regarding North American content in EV batteries and sourcing of critical minerals, some trade groups are saying that stretch goals -- along with government funding in the Inflation Reduction Act -- are what's needed to create a new supply chain outside of China.
Canada's trade minister, Mary Ng, announced that Canada will launch a USMCA dispute with the U.S. over the continued antidumping and countervailing duties on some Canadian softwood lumber exports.
A little over a month since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act rebuttable presumption took effect, no importer so far has successfully overcome that presumption, Elva Muneton, acting executive director of the UFLPA Implementation Task Force said, speaking Aug. 3 during the CBP Detroit Field Office's Virtual Trade Week. "Thirty days into this. I have not seen any documentation that has been able to overcome the rebuttable presumption," she said. But, "it's only been 30 days so I think the documentation for a lot of the shippers that are detained are being assembled to be submitted to CBP. That's what I'm guessing is happening."
The Federal Maritime Commission will soon ask for public comments on a proposed plan to collect new tonnage and cargo capacity data from certain ocean carriers. Under the proposal, which includes a 60-day comment period once published in the Federal Register, the FMC would collect information from carriers on the total import and export tonnage and the total loaded and empty 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) per vessel.
The dispute panel grappled with what Mexico characterized as "the heart of the dispute" in its second day of a hearing about whether Canada and Mexico or the U.S. is right about one aspect of the complex USMCA auto rules of origin.
CBP, in closely linked cases, determined that there is substantial evidence that importers Starille, Nutrawave and Newtrend USA evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on glycine from China (EAPA Consolidated Case No. 7647), while there was a lack of substantial evidence that the same importers evaded an AD order on glycine from Thailand (EAPA Consolidated Case No. 7663).