A resolution that would overturn the Biden administration’s two-year delay of antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and panels from Southeast Asia passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee 26-13 on April 19.

CBP is working on a new, “custom-built” portal for its Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, including a new dashboard that will give CTPAT users insight into their examination rates and cost savings, said Manuel Garza, CTPAT director. The agency hopes to roll out the portal in phases beginning later this year.

BOSTON -- In breakout sessions on operational perspectives on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and the technology that can help importers do UFLPA due diligence, CBP officials acknowledged that it's hard to provide the sort of evidence required to clear an applicability review after goods are detained.

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With a short window for passing customs modernization legislation this year and uncertain prospects after that, it’s important that CBP and the trade community “stick the landing” of the 21st Century Customs Framework initiative and present a united front to Congress when a legislative proposal is submitted by CBP later this year, said John Drake, vice president-supply chain policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Almost half of de minimis shipments last year were covered either by the Type 86 entry test or the Section 321 data pilot program, CBP said, but that doesn't mean that the government has a good grasp on what merchandise is entering in small packages.

CBP is aware that some customs brokers may need additional time to report their employees in the Modernized ACE Portal by the April 14 deadline due to technical issues, the agency said in a CSMS message. Some brokers have “encountered ACE technical issues tied to increased volume of employee reporting,” including “the inability to edit individual employee's information due to an 'invalid page' error and bulk uploads not returning successes even when the data elements are all correct,” CBP said.

Most of the attention on the EU's hopes for better treatment under the Inflation Reduction Act electric vehicle tax incentives has been focused on the possibility that critical minerals processed, mined or recycled in the EU could qualify under content thresholds for friendshoring. However, half the tax credit is linked to North American assembly of battery components, and EU trade officials said that was not as damaging to EU interests as it could have been.

Forced labor enforcement is "likely to ramp up even further" based on the inquiry of automakers led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and a letter from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, international trade lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP Ted Murphy said April 13. Wyden's investigation, which began last December, focuses on automakers and their use of forced labor in the supply chain (see 2212220045). Wyden's role as Senate Finance Committee chairman means the investigation on the auto industry's supply chains and their connection to Xinjiang "is likely going to spur CBP into action," and auto manufacturers and suppliers will likely see increased UFLPA detentions, according to Murphy.

Canopies for child safety seats are properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9401.99.90 as "other" seat parts, CBP headquarters said in a recently released ruling modification, despite a comment on the underlying proposal that said the court needed to follow U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit precedent and classify the canopies as parts of seats for vehicle seats.