Morgan Lewis attorneys said that although the number of detentions by CBP under suspicion of Xinjiang content in the automotive and aerospace sector don't suggest there's a high risk of exposure to Uyghur labor in supply chains, importers should recognize that the issue of forced labor enforcement in the sector is not going away.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, speaking by video link at an Atlantic Council/Atlantik-Brücke program in Berlin Sept. 22, said she remains "very hopeful that we will have something to show the rest of the world in the next six-week period" as EU and U.S. negotiators continue to try to harmonize both trade defenses and approaches to privileging trade in green steel and aluminum.

Federal Maritime Commission staff have "nearly" completed the drafting process for the commission's upcoming final rule on detention and demurrage, and are "reviewing several late filed subsequent comments that have come in within the past month," FMC General Counsel Chris Hughey said at a Sept. 21 FMC meeting.

The Court of International Trade on Sept. 21 ruled in a customs classification case involving eight different categories of decorative plant parts, siding with importer Second Nature Designs on its preferred classification of two of the categories and with the government on one of the categories. Pertaining to three other categories, Judge Gary Katzmann said that there were fact questions remaining, leading the judge to deny summary judgment and advance litigation to its "second phase."

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Neb., underscored the need to lower tariffs through the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program for American businesses during high inflation at a hearing on reforming GSP, and asked his colleagues to "move forward with open minds and the urge to get things done."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., said changing the terms of "de minimis is something that we are going to have a lot of fruitful discussions [on], we are doing that with the Senate. It's a very bipartisan concern."

CBP should create a new alert in ACE when importers of merchandise potentially subject to antidumping and countervailing duties may be required to submit a certification that their goods are not subject merchandise, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee said in a recommendation adopted at its quarterly public meeting on Sept. 20.

A former Senate Finance Committee chairman when Republicans were in the majority, a pro-trade Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, and that committee's trade subcommittee leaders all agree -- if a returned President Donald Trump imposed a global 10% tariff by executive order, Congress likely would step in to undo it.

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CBP is working on advancing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking about eBond functionality and updating it from a "test to a requirement, eliminating the majority of paper bond processing, and ensuring bonds are on file," CBP said. The announcement came in a working paper submitted by the Bond Working Group of the Intelligent Enforcement Subcommittee ahead of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting on Sept. 20. The working paper is among a series of documents being released ahead of the meeting (see 2309150048).