NEW YORK -- The Section 301 tariffs largely have spared apparel, but U.S.-China Business Council Vice President Erin Ennis told industry representatives that tariffs on all remaining Chinese goods could follow. "You should hope for the best, but, as businesses, you should be planning for the worst on that front," she said. "We're not at the end of this yet." Ennis was speaking at the Apparel Importers Trade and Transportation Conference Nov. 7.
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.
NEW YORK -- The assistant U.S. trade representative for textiles acknowledged there are changes to NAFTA "you may not like," before he pitched changes to the pact that could be beneficial for the garment industry. Bill Jackson, who noted that textiles is the only sector to have a dedicated office at USTR, was speaking Nov. 7 at the Apparel Importers Trade and Transportation Conference. United States Fashion Industry Association President Julia Hughes, who was interviewing Jackson, agreed that the rewrite is "a mixed bag" for her industry.
A group of 14 House Democrats, led by New Jersey's Frank Pallone, introduced H.R. 7115, the 3D Firearms Prevention Act. The bill, introduced Nov. 2, would prohibit the distribution into commerce or import into the U.S. of "certain firearm receiver castings or blanks, assault weapon parts kits, and machine gun parts kits," among other priorities. Given the number of budget bills that have to be addressed in the lame duck session, the chances of the bill becoming law this year are very slim. It would have to be reintroduced next year, because bills expire at the end of each two-year congressional term.
The main advisory committee for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative unanimously supports the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement as "far better than the existing NAFTA," and encouraged Congress to enact it as quickly as possible. The committee includes three union leaders, and the rest of its 21 members are either from right of center think tanks or business interests.
The aluminum producers of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have written their leaders -- as well as Mexico's president-elect -- asking that tariffs on aluminum be lifted, without quotas, before Nov. 30. "The USMCA cannot work for the aluminum industry or our many downstream customers without exempting Canada and Mexico from the [Section] 232 tariffs or quotas," the three trade groups wrote in a Nov. 5 letter. They suggested that unnaturally cheap Chinese aluminum cannot come into the U.S. through a free-trade backdoor. "Canada recently moved to align its country of origin marking regime for steel and aluminum products to prevent transshipment and diversion of aluminum and steel. Mexico has initiated an anti-dumping case on aluminum foil imports from China," the letter said, so the tariffs in the region are no longer needed. The U.S. aluminum trade group never supported aluminum tariffs on allies.
Fourteen trade groups wrote to the U.S. trade representative asking him to strip language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that suggests the de minimis level could be lowered to be closer to the NAFTA region trading partners' levels. The letter, sent Nov. 6, was initiated by the National Foreign Trade Council, and notes that Congress unilaterally raised the de minimis level in 2016 because "reduced logistics costs improve the bottom line of American small businesses across industries who import low value components for assembly and value-added manufacturing operations." It helps firms that import samples, the letter said, and benefits "importers and logistics firms by reducing the time and cost to process millions of shipments and shaving a half-a-day or more from clearing each shipment."
China wants to make it more likely that imports will rise by taking more steps "to lower tariffs, facilitate customs clearance, reduce institutional costs in import, and step up cross-border e-commerce," President Xi Jinping said in a speech Nov. 5 in Shanghai at the first China International Import Expo. Most purchases of industrial goods made by American companies are of products made in China -- most of the U.S. exports to China are commodities, like chemicals and soybeans.
Mauritania, which exported about $54.9 million in goods to the U.S. last year under trade preferences, will be barred from the African Growth and Opportunity Act at the beginning of 2019, because of its continuing problem with forced labor. Virtually all of the imports that are covered by AGOA are fuel, though the U.S. does import a few million dollars' worth of fish, fertilizers and other products. President Donald Trump sent a notification of the change to Congress on Nov. 2.
The Commerce Department's Office of Inspector General announced that it has begun an audit of the Section 232 tariff exclusion process, with the objective of determining whether the Bureau of Industry and Security and International Trade Administration are adhering to the procedures to review those product exclusion requests, and whether "decisions are reached in a consistent and transparent manner."
CBP has identified 14 use cases for blockchain as part of its pilot of the technology, according to Kati Suominen, founder and CEO of Nextrade Group and the lead speaker at a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel discussion on harnessing the technology. But the U.S. is not out front in adopting blockchain technology, either in business or in government, she said. Fifteen countries in Africa are using blockchain in customs, and Mexico, Costa Rica, Peru, South Korea and Singapore are all experimenting with it as well.