The two top issues Thomas Overacker, CBP's executive director of cargo and conveyance security, has been dealing with are the blockades at the Canadian border and the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. He told an audience at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones' legislative conference that CBP is going to have a challenge identifying what goods come from the Xinjiang region, given the number of middle men in China, issuing invoices or acting as freight forwarders. "It’s not always evident from the data we collect at CBP … where the goods were actually produced," he said Feb. 15.

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.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Feb. 11 suspended avocado export program operations in the Mexican state of Michoacan, after a “security incident” that included a verbal threat to an APHIS employee, an agency spokesperson emailed Feb. 14. “The suspension will remain in place for as long as necessary to ensure the appropriate actions are taken, to secure the safety of APHIS personnel working in Mexico,” the spokesperson said.

To help prevent someone from selling stolen goods on a marketplace, California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Washington state legislators have proposed bills that would require marketplaces to obtain and share the names and contact information of high-volume marketplace sellers.

The U.S. is seeking formal consultations over how Mexico is enforcing laws aimed at protecting the endangered vaquita porpoise and the prohibition on the sale of the totoaba fish, after other discussions did not produce enough progress, officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said. These consultations are under the environmental chapter of the USMCA, not the dispute settlement chapter, but if the countries were not able to reach a negotiated settlement, the U.S. could table a dispute that could ultimately lead to tariffs, if the panel ruled against Mexico.

A Corona, California, customs broker was arrested Feb. 10 on a federal grand jury indictment charging him in a scheme to defraud a Japanese variety store. Broker Frank Seung Noah was charged with tax evasion and wire fraud involving customs duties. The indictment says he evaded payment of $1.5 million in taxes and engaged in a $3.4 million wire fraud scheme that overcharged one of his clients, Daiso, the variety store. Noah owned and operated Comis International Inc., a logistics and supply-chain firm that provided customs brokerage services to companies, including Daiso.

CBP is making several adjustments to reduce the impact on trade flows from the ongoing protests on the northern border over Canadian vaccine requirements for truckers, Thomas Overacker, CBP executive director-cargo and conveyance security, said during a Feb. 9 conference call. As part of that, the agency is allowing for diversions and is telling its field offices that "a port mismatch is not grounds for stopping a truck," he said. CBP issued a CSMS message on the subject that said "CBP ports are encouraged to consider maximum flexibility to ensure that legitimate cargo is processed."

A U.S. solar panel manufacturer on Feb. 8 filed another request for an anti-circumvention inquiry on solar cells from third countries made from Chinese inputs, including polysilicon wafers and ingots. Auxin Solar says solar cell imports from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia are circumventing the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China (A-570-979/C-570-980), in a request filed months after a similar petition from a group of anonymous solar producers was rejected by the Commerce Department.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., argues that the America Competes Act and the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, the House and Senate legislation to confront economic competition with China, differ in significant ways but have the "same core principles."

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.