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.

Actuator cable assemblies assembled in Mexico from Chinese motors and various parts from China, Taiwan, the U.S. and Mexico are products of China based on the motor's predetermined end use, CBP said in a recent ruling -- the first publicly released that cites the Court of International Trade's recent decision in an origin case involving Cyber Power (see 2302270064).

Products tainted by Uyghur forced labor include a "vast array" of agricultural products, raw materials and manufactured goods and are not just limited to the few industries CBP has specifically targeted, according to a report from Sheffield Hallam University released May 15. While tomatoes, cotton and polysilicon do have a large market share of goods produced through forced labor, China's extensive production of raw materials, agricultural products, and manufacturing products means that many industries have some sort of tie to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

A note to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule specifies that, in order to qualify as water resistant, goods must both meet a water seepage standard and incorporate either rubber or plastics. Maine's two U.S. senators recently introduced a bill that would drop the clause on plastics and rubber that is part of the additional note to Chapter 62.

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said that he and Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have not delved into details about what they might keep and what they might drop from the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act trade title as the Senate tries for a second China competition bill. But, Crapo said, with regard to the Section 301 exclusion process directive that was part of the June 2021 package, it may not be on the agenda.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that 77 of 81 items previously granted Section 301 exclusions due to the COVID-19 pandemic will continue through Sept. 30. The rest will expire at the end of May. All the exclusions had been scheduled to end May 15.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a populist Republican from Missouri, said he's linking a proposal to hike tariffs on Chinese imports to the debt ceiling and budget deficit debate because he believes it could revive "good-paying manufacturing jobs" in America. In his view, the loss of these jobs is a "huge" driver of the federal government's deficit, as it doesn't bring in enough revenue to cover its spending.

The chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee used his perch to promote a bill he sponsored that would allow the president to lower duties on non-import-sensitive goods made by a country that lost exports due to coercive actions; increase duties on imports from the "foreign adversary" committing the coercion; and allow the U.S. to more easily facilitate trade, including exports, with the coerced parties (see 2302230021).

Temperature screening devices that include infrared cameras are properly classified as thermometers rather than digital cameras, other optical appliances, or instruments measuring or checking quantities of heat, CBP found in a recently released headquarters ruling that instructed the port to grant an importer's protest.

The inability of CBP to stop all goods made with Uyghur forced labor was one of the focuses of a trade hearing hosted on Staten Island by the House Ways and Means Committee, and when committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., asked a witness what more could be done to crack down, Uyghur activist Nury Turkel said the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act should be expanded to cover all of China.