The omnibus spending bill, the last legislative vehicle of this Congress, did not include a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program or the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. The tariff relief will have been gone for more than two years, as a result.
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.
EPA’s proposed expansion of liability for compliance with hydrofluorocarbon import requirements to all parties that could perform the role of importer of record “blurs the roles” of parties to a transaction and adds confusion as to who is responsible with meeting EPA requirements, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments posted by EPA on Dec. 19.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in a Q&A with members of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. needs the EU to succeed in developing its green transition technologies, just as the EU needs the U.S. to succeed in that arena.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is extending tariff exclusions for 352 products from China that had been scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. Those exclusions will now last until Sept. 30 next year.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is working with CBP and the government of New Zealand to deploy a sudden ban on imports of certain fish from the country in response to an order from the Court of International Trade (see 2211280053), it said in a notice released Dec. 16 outlining the new restrictions.
Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the former House Ways and Means Committee chairman who is retiring from Congress at the end of the month, told reporters in a farewell press conference that he thinks, with divided government, the administration will not be able to impose its will in trade and international tax policies by avoiding tariff reductions.
As carmakers, battery companies and critical minerals supply chain players await news from the Treasury Department on the details of how vehicles and batteries will become eligible for electric vehicle tax credits, a major South Korean carmaker sounded the alarm that the new Inflation Reduction Act could make its planned Georgia plant unprofitable.
The Commerce Department’s recent preliminary determination that Southeast Asian solar cells and panels are circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties (see 2212020064) left several questions unanswered, and lawyers for the Solar Energy Industries Association hope the agency will clarify these issues as the case proceeds to its final determinations, they said during a webinar Dec. 13.
Although the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee hearing was ostensibly about using trade agreements to promote environmental causes, Republicans on the dais mostly focused on their frustration that the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill have not been renewed, even though they have been lapsed for nearly two years.