Witnesses from the furniture and cabinet sector in both Vietnam and the U.S. argued that Vietnam has greatly improved its governance over illegal imports of tropical wood and, to whatever degree illegal imports still exist, that wood is not then exported to U.S. buyers.
Metal importers and a senior Republican staffer in the House of Representatives agreed that the Commerce Department's revisions to its Section 232 exclusions process are somewhat of an improvement, but they diverge in their opinions of how helpful the changes will be for the industry. The revisions were announced in an interim final rule published Dec. 14 (see 2012100047); some elements have already taken effect, and others take effect Dec. 29. However, the agency is still accepting comments on the revisions through Feb. 12, 2021.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined by five Republicans and two Democrats on the committee, told the Office of Management and Budget that a proposed rule to carve out items under Section 301 tariffs from de minimis needs “a thorough and complete review,” including a public comment period of 60 days. However, the letter was not signed by either of the two men who might be the chairman in January, depending on which party controls the Senate.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, won't be leading the Senate Finance Committee next year but said “it's going to take more than a few minutes between staff to work things out” on how to change the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. “I’m open to some of the things the Democrats hope to get in GSP,” he said Dec. 23 on a phone call with reporters, noting he's interested in promoting human rights, environmental protections and labor standards in other countries. But “some industries and segments of our economy” are going to suffer because the tariff preferences expired, he said. “And it’s just too bad.”
Demand shocks, input shortages and some regulatory roadblocks are the primary reasons for shortages of N95 masks, medical-grade gloves and gowns, ventilators and other goods needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Trade Commission wrote in a report released Dec. 22, after a request from the committees that oversee trade policy in Congress.
The Generalized System of Preferences and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill will expire at the end of the year, as neither provision moved with the end-of-year spending bill and COVID-19 relief package.
Foreign-trade zone users will no longer be able to claim tariff benefits under USMCA when the products manufactured in those zones meet the free trade agreement's rules of origin. However, none of the producers had yet been able to avoid tariffs on inputs, National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones CEO Erik Autor told International Trade Today Dec. 21, as there had been no administrative process at CBP to implement the change.
Customs brokers, after many years of lobbying (see 09021315), won a change to the treatment of duties transferred to them by importers that later go bankrupt. The brokers had argued that these duties should not be subject to clawback provisions under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, where payments to vendors within 90 days can be seized by the bankruptcy courts for redistribution.
Technical fixes for USMCA, including the restoration of merchandise processing fee refunds for post-entry filings, are part of the end-of-year legislative package expected to pass later today, a Senate Finance Committee spokesman said.
The Ottawa Group, which includes the European Union, Japan, Brazil, Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, Canada and others, is arguing that a coordinated global response is needed to COVID-19, including cooperating on vaccine distribution, and trade in other medical supplies, and says regulatory compatibility on these goods should be improved so that the world will be ready for the next pandemic.