Consumer tech products imported from China bore more than $32 billion in Section 301 tariff exposure between July 2018, when the first of the tariffs took effect, and December 2021, without dissuading most U.S. importers to abandon Chinese sourcing, according to a newly released Consumer Technology Association report produced with Trade Partnership Worldwide. A CTA spokesperson said July 20 that the association released the report to coincide with this week's public hearing at the International Trade Commission as part of its investigation on the economic impact of the Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs on U.S. industries.

Congress is abandoning its effort to compromise on its two China packages as the Senate moves to pass a pared-down bill that will provide financial incentives for domestic semiconductor manufacturing. What exactly is in the bill isn't yet known, but none of the trade title is expected to survive.

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.

As CBP moves toward collecting data from “non-traditional” parties earlier in the supply chain as part of its reimagined 21st Century Customs Framework, major questions include the standard to which that data will be held, as well as how CBP will enforce those standards on supply chain actors beyond the agency’s jurisdiction, CBP and industry officials said during a panel discussion July 18.

The Entity List released last month for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) will be getting longer fairly soon, according to John Pickel, principal director, trade and economic competitiveness, Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans at DHS. Pickel, speaking at a CBP trade conference in California July 18, sad, "The process for adding and removing entities will be summarized in a Federal Register notice that we expect to come out in the short term."

CBP is making progress on its new vessel entrance and clearing system (VECS) and hopes to release a pilot program “later this year,” said Brian Sale, CBP’s branch chief for vessel operations. The agency will release a Federal Register notice this week announcing a new Vessel Agency Account type within the Automated Commercial Environment, Sale said, which will allow users to eventually participate in the pilot.

The House of Representatives voted 421-2 to remove tariffs on imported formula through the end of the year, just over three weeks since a bill was introduced by Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., to pause the tariffs.

CBP’s reversal in an antidumping and countervailing duty evasion case at the Court of International Trade case puts the agency’s entire Enforce and Protect Act program “in jeopardy,” the domestic industry group Aluminum Extruders Council said in a blog post July 13.

Ongoing labor negotiations between West Coast ports and their dockworkers’ union are unlikely to cause major disruptions, said David Bennett, chief commercial officer of Farrow, a customs broker and logistics provider. But that doesn’t mean shippers should expect the negotiations to wrap up anytime soon. “I don't think we'll have a contract before September, to be honest with you,” Bennett said during a July 14 webinar hosted by the Journal of Commerce.

A Husch Blackwell partner said that although most importers have not been surprised when CBP tells them they are intending to do an intensive exam on their goods when they arrive in port over forced labor issues, his firm has had several clients whose goods were cleared, and then, in the first month after that date, CBP issues a redelivery notice.