The National Foreign Trade Council has hired John Pickel, a former trade director in the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Strategy, Policy and Plans, as senior director for international supply chain policy. Pickel also previously served as counselor to the CBP commissioner for trade facilitation and trade enforcement and as a congressional affairs staffer. “John brings a remarkable wealth of expertise and experience in a range of supply chain, trade facilitation and customs issues that are critically important to our member companies,” NFTC President Jake Colvin said.
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.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has stopped the import of fresh bell peppers from Spain, as of Dec. 29, because it wants to prevent the Mediterranean fruit fly from spreading in the U.S. In-bond transfers of the peppers are also prohibited, south of 39 degree latitude and west of 104 degrees longitude. Fruit flies were detected during multiple CBP inspections of the subject goods at ports of entry to the U.S.
Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Leader-elect, told his colleagues in a Dec. 30 letter that he plans to bring 11 pieces of legislation for a vote during the first two weeks of the 118th Congress, including a bill that would establish a Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., one of the leading voices for free trade in the Democratic caucus, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a free-trade purist in the Republican caucus, issued a joint paper of recommendations on trade on Dec. 29, just before they were both leaving office.
The European Union said it is glad that the U.S. Treasury Department is reaffirming that European companies can benefit from the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit without changing their production plans. "The EU welcomes this guidance, which reflects the constructive engagement as part of the EU-US Inflation Reduction Act Task Force at senior official level," the press office said Dec. 29, the day that guidance was released.
The Treasury Department issued a white paper on how it will shape proposed guidance for electric vehicle batteries and critical minerals, with some specifics on how it will define the critical mineral/battery component dividing line but deferring the definition of a free trade agreement.
Just ahead of a change in control at the House Ways and Means Committee, the International Trade Commission issued a comprehensive report on how trade preference programs such as HOPE and HELP and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act have affected the Haitian economy. The ITC report, which ran 200 pages without appendixes, noted that Haiti's exports to the U.S. are more than 80% of all of Haiti's exports.
The Transnational Alliance to Combat Illicit Trade (TRACIT) thanked the champions of the Inform Consumers Act after it was included in the year-end spending bill on Dec. 23, saying it "is a critical element in the fight against the online sale of counterfeit and stolen products," but noting that the group still wants movement on Stopping Harmful Offers on Platforms by Screening Against Fakes in E-commerce Act, or Shop Safe.
The Inform Consumers Act, which will require online platforms to verify high-volume third-party sellers, and to make those sellers' contact information available to the public, was included in the massive year-end spending bill that became law Dec. 23.
CBP said it began detaining merchandise produced by Jingde Trading Ltd., Rixin Foods, Ltd., and Xhejiang Sunrise Garment Group Co. Ltd. on Dec. 5, after its investigation indicated the companies' products were made in part by North Korean labor. The Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, prohibits the entry of goods mined, produced or manufactured wholly or in part by North Korean citizens anywhere in the world, unless there is clear and convincing evidence the goods were not made with forced, indentured or convict labor. The enforcement action was made public Dec. 27.