The sole member of the Ways and Means Committee who sits on the House Select Committee on China, along with the committee's chairman, are asking the Department of Homeland Security to brief them on how it's investigating allegations of trade fraud, and to allay their concerns that customs fraud is not being enforced.

A vote for a 30-day temporary spending bill, which proposed major changes to the administration's immigration policies and cut spending by $10 billion in that month, failed 198-232, with 21 Republicans voting no. The spending cuts spared Department of Homeland Security, defense spending and funding for veterans. As a result, the other discretionary spending would have been cut 29.9% below current levels.

The upcoming, near-certain government shutdown should last at least one week, and has a good chance of lasting three weeks or more, said Nicole Bivens Collinson, legislative counsel for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, speaking on a call hosted by the NCBFAA Sept. 29.

Moving manufacturing from China to another Asian country is not the way to "get ahead of the game" in avoiding forced labor detentions, said Amanda Levitt, a Sandler Travis lawyer, while speaking during a virtual Sourcemap conference on supply chain transparency. Levitt said that tracing falls apart for most firms at the Tier 2 level, and that's not enough. Many of the items identified by nongovernmental organizations as being produced with Uyghur forced labor -- cotton, aluminum, PVC -- are raw materials much deeper than tier 2.

Even though thousands of CBP employees will be required to work without pay to clear cargo in the case of a government shutdown on Sunday, importers are preparing for problems, since they have experienced them in previous shutdowns.

Canadian leaders with an interest in trading with the U.S. are looking South with trepidation, realizing that President Donald Trump could be back in office in 2026, when all three countries will have to agree to continue the NAFTA successor.

Imports from a major Chinese PVC, chemical and textile manufacturer and two other textile companies will be barred from the U.S. beginning Sept. 27, after their listings by DHS on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List the previous day.

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.

Rising U.S.-China tensions are causing all-time highs in uncertainty and pessimism for U.S. companies doing business in China, and are driving U.S. companies to reduce investment in China in record numbers, according to an annual member survey released by the U.S.-China Business Council on Sept. 26. More than a third of companies said they have either stopped investing in China or have scaled back.

Parts of two refinery units cannot all be classified under a tariff schedule provision for "distilling or rectifying plant," because not every subunit contributes to the "clearly defined function of distillation," CBP said in a recently released ruling. The ruling was issued in response to a request for a binding classification ruling by Marathon Petroleum Company.