An element of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits package that has passed the House Ways and Means Committee next month could result in some apparel items being added to the eligibility list for the first time, something sponsor Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., has pushed for since 2023.
Mara Lee
Mara Lee, Senior Editor, is a reporter for International Trade Today and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. She joined the Warren Communications News staff in early 2018, after covering health policy, Midwestern Congressional delegations, and the Connecticut economy, insurance and manufacturing sectors for the Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper (established 1674). Before arriving in Washington D.C. to cover Congress in 2005, she worked in Ohio, where she witnessed fervent presidential campaigning every four years.
Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller, just after telling an appropriations committee member that CBP's staff "need help in the de minimis environment," told her that there are legislative proposals, that if they were to pass, "allow us to actually bring that level [of shipments] down to a manageable level for us."
The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force is responsible for naming companies that are known to use Uyghur forced labor, including through labor transfers to other regions of China. But FLETF member and Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs Thea Lee said she hasn't seen an effective way of monitoring those labor transfers, though the U.S. government believes they are growing.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's president told the U.S. trade representative that customs brokers and others in the trade community aren't "pro forced-labor, pro-pollution, pro-unsustainable environmental practices," but that too often, "‘race to the top’ objectives do not take into consideration the ability to actually implement the policies, and the costs associated with the goals."
Perkins Coie partner Michael House told an audience of automotive supply chain professionals that this fiscal year has seen not only a sharp increase in the number of detentions, "but even more important, in our view, is the scope of products being detained has diversified, and there's been a steady increase in detentions of merchandise that were outside those original so-called priority sectors."
An international panel ruling on whether the U.S. had the right to punish a zinc mine in San Martín over labor violations agreed with Mexico that the violations happened before USMCA -- or T-MEC, as Mexico calls it -- came into force, and so the panel ruled it didn't have jurisdiction.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, during a Q&A with Reuters, said that China has acknowledged that its manufacturing overcapacity is a problem, but she said observers shouldn't expect a quick fix.
If the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative decides that China's subsidies to its shipbuilding industry burden U.S. commerce through a range of unreasonable or discriminatory acts, a coalition of unions suggests it impose a fee on Chinese ships arriving at U.S. ports (see 2404170029). During a Washington International Trade Association webinar on the new Section 301 investigation, former USTR associate general counsel David Ross said China's subsidies are evident but the remedy is not.
A career staffer in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative whose portfolio includes the auto industry told an audience of auto industry supply chain professionals that it's likely the U.S. will be talking with Mexico about the increased foreign direct investment from Chinese companies manufacturing auto parts or, potentially, assembling vehicles, in Mexico.
A bipartisan bill led by a House Ways and Means Committee member would allow warehouses and brands located in foreign trade zones to send goods that were imported into the zones to consumers and have those packages qualify for de minimis treatment.