Countries whose industries have been damaged by Chinese oversubsidization and overcapacity have tried to discourage subsidies in China, with results that have "been mixed at best," said Anna Ashton, the Eurasia Group's director of China corporate affairs and U.S.-China relations. She said allowing China to join the World Trade Organization, more than 20 years ago, was part of this system of carrots and sticks to effect changes in China.

As the finish line comes into sight for discussions with CBP on enforcement-related agency “challenge areas” under the 21st Century Customs Framework (21CCF), trade community participants now seek to steer the discourse toward facilitation and modernization opportunities that may prove crucial to getting buy-in from the trade industry.

The Court of International Trade in its April 1 remand order gave the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “one final opportunity” to cure its Administrative Procedure Act violations and "flesh out" the reasons why it rejected the 9,000+ comments it received in the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariff rulemakings, without devising “new rationales for dismissing them,” Akin Gump lawyers for lead Section 301 plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products said in comments on USTR’s Aug. 1 remand determination. “USTR’s response to that directive flunks the Court’s test,” they said (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT #21-00052).

The Court of International Trade “bent over backwards” to allow the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to comply with its Administrative Procedure Act obligations in its imposition of the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods when it remanded the duties to the agency for further explanation on the rationale for the actions it took in the context of the comments it received, said an amicus brief filed Sept. 14 in the massive Section 301 litigation from the Retail Litigation Center, CTA, the National Retail Federation and four other trade associations. With USTR’s “non-responsive” answer to the remand order, the time has come for the court “to impose the normal remedy for unlawful agency action” and to vacate the lists 3 and 4A tariffs, it said (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT #21-00052).

CBP hopes that its 19 CFR 111 customs broker modernization final rule will go for publication "at any moment," and it will hold "multiple webinars" on the new regulations, which are set to eliminate district permits, to provide details on the rule as it is published, CBP Deputy Commissioner Troy Miller said at the Sept. 14 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee.

During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing focused on expanding trade with Taiwan, ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chose to put in a word for trade preference programs that expired at the end of 2020. "It was a mistake to allow two crucial job-creating programs, GSP and MTB, to have expired. They have now lapsed for almost two years," Brady said, referring to the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. "Inaction on these key programs is causing American companies and their workers to lose out to foreign competitors, and additional delay will only increase this impact."

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Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. believes that a way to preserve the economic benefits of chemical plants and also fight climate change is to impose a carbon border adjustment tax on certain goods.

The Federal Maritime Commission will soon seek public comments on the set of factors it should consider when determining whether an ocean carrier is violating shipping regulations by refusing vessel space to shippers. The effort, outlined in a notice of proposed rulemaking required by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, also seeks to define certain “unreasonable” conduct by ocean carriers, specifically their “unreasonable refusal to deal or negotiate with respect to vessel space accommodation,” FMC said. The commission will accept comments up to 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai frequently talks about the need for a smarter globalization, which she calls Globalization 2.0, which is more resilient and more environmentally sustainable.