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.

While the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, may work for the nations that want an appellate level of review of WTO panel decisions, it doesn't necessarily make sense for U.S. purposes, said Jamieson Greer, former chief of staff for the U.S. trade representative and partner at King & Spalding. Speaking at a May 8 Federalist Society event, Greer said that if the U.S. wanted another level of review at the WTO, the government would simply just start staffing up the AB again rather than pursue a solution under the MPIA.

Kharon, a company that provides intelligence to help companies with global compliance issues, says that caustic soda, commonly known as lye, is being produced by a state-owned company in Xinjiang, and is being sold to Vietnamese fabric manufacturers and electronics manufacturers, and is even being sold to U.S. cleaning products manufacturers.

The Senate passed a resolution to end the duty waiver on solar panels from Southeast Asia that the Commerce Department says circumvent antidumping and countervailing duties, but the president has promised to veto the resolution.

Over half of charge complaints submitted to the Federal Maritime Commission have been resolved by the parties agreeing to a settlement, FMC Managing Director Lucille Marvin said during a May 3 FMC meeting. More than half of what comes in gets settled "almost right away," Marvin said. Once "regulated entities see that we're involved, they come back to the table and issue refunds or waivers."

Complex composite temperature screening devices are properly classified as thermometers of Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9025 and are excluded from Section 301 duties under secondary tariff number 9903.88.12 CBP, ruled in a recently released headquarters ruling. The items at issue consisted of an infrared camera, a visual imaging camera, a temperature reference source, an ethernet cable, a power adapter and a power cord.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he'll use the 2021 trade title from the Senate China package as his committee works on its contribution to a second China package envisioned by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to address economic competition with China and to deter Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.

Almost five months have passed since the U.S. learned it lost its case under USMCA, and that, in order to be faithful to what it negotiated, it must allow automotive producers to use roll-up methodologies to meet regional content thresholds for core parts. The U.S. was supposed to resolve the dispute within 45 days, but has not done so.

Heat-treated forged steel rods imported by ME Global are properly classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule as "other bars" not further worked than forged, rather than in the importer's preferred classification as "grinding balls and similar articles for mills," the Court of International Trade ruled in a May 2 decision.

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