President Donald Trump signed into law on Oct. 24 an opioids bills package that includes measures to fight fentanyl trafficking through the mail. The STOP Act, or Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act, is one of the parts of the package (see 1809180040), and it will require advance data from all international mail by 2020 -- designed to help CBP interdict small-scale fentanyl and carfentanil shipments, particularly ones from China.
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.
A letter from 10 Democratic senators to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer complained about the fact that no exclusion process has been set up for the nearly $200 billion in goods from China subject to an additional 10 percent tariff under Section 301. Sen. Tim Kaine, who led the letter, asked why there hasn't been an exclusion process for the third tranche, while there is one for the first and second rounds of the tariffs. The senators urged that an exclusion process be established immediately, given that this third tranche of tariffs is set to increase to 25 percent on Jan. 1. Kaine also asked if there is any intention to implement an exclusion application process, and if so, how it will be implemented. A group of House lawmakers also asked Lighthizer about the exclusions process earlier this month (see 1810160049). A Republican Senate trade staffer said Oct. 23 that USTR is not pursuing an exclusion process for this larger list. He said the office still hasn't granted any exclusions from the first two lists, and allowing applications for the third tranche would be a logistical problem.
Lifting the steel and aluminum tariffs on Mexico and Canada before the NAFTA replacement is signed at the end of November would be a good idea, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told reporters Oct. 23. Portman was one of a handful of senators at a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer a little more than a week ago, and he said Lighthizer did not say that was his goal.
The U.S. and other countries that export scrap metals, plastics, paper or cardboard to China complained about new restrictions on waste materials at the World Trade Organization's Committee on Import Licensing. At the committee meeting, which was described by a Geneva trade official, the U.S. asked for the topic to be broached, and the European Union, Canada, Korea and Australia joined in, according to the official. The U.S. told China that its changes have led to recyclable material being buried in U.S. landfills, and said there could be a heightened threat of increased marine litter if the global recycling chain remains disrupted. The U.S. also said Chinese manufacturers have been forced to use virgin materials because so much less recyclable material is being accepted (see 1805040054).
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body committee, which will meet Oct. 29, will consider multiple requests for panels on the legality of the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, and on the legality of the safeguard tariffs that others imposed in reaction to the Section 232 action. The U.S. notified the WTO that its consultations with the European Union, Mexico, China and Canada on their safeguards were unsuccessful, and it asks for a panel in each of those matters. Canada, Mexico, Norway, Russia, the EU and China all asked for a panel on the metals tariffs.
Changes to de minimis is the most significant change from NAFTA in customs administration and trade facilitation under the rewritten agreement, practitioners say, but exactly how that will work in practice is still unknown. Shipments from the U.S. or Canada into Mexico will not face duties if they are valued at less than $117, and will not have to pay tax if they are valued at less than $50. Shipments into Canada from NAFTA partner countries will be tax-free if valued under 40 Canadian dollars, and duty-free at under 150 Canadian. (Mexico's $117 limit matches C$150 at current exchange rates.)
A group of companies, trade associations, labor unions and law firms that advocate for antidumping and countervailing duty enforcement says it appreciates that the new NAFTA creates procedures to address evasion of trade remedy orders. The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws says that AD and CVD laws are "constantly threatened by new and more subtle ways by our trading partners to illegally avoid payment of duties," and pointed to steel, bearings, furniture and honey as products involving duty circumvention or evasion. The changes to Chapter 10 will allow the U.S. to request duty evasion verification from Mexico or Canada, and the U.S. will be able to see confidential information to determine if duty evasion is happening. However, the press release noted, most evasion has been coming from Chinese firms.
Autos and auto parts make up 25 percent of the NAFTA trade, and the head of the trade group that represents Detroit's Big 3 auto firms says they will push aggressively to get the NAFTA rewrite through Congress next year. Matt Blunt, CEO of the American Automotive Policy Council, said, "If party control changes in one of the chambers, that does make it more difficult to gain approval of USMCA, but I still think it's highly doable." Blunt is the former governor of Missouri, and his father Roy Blunt is in the Republican leadership in the U.S. Senate.
When the U.S. and the United Kingdom begin talks on a free trade agreement in April next year, Sir Kim Darroch, the United Kingdom's ambassador in Washington, said he's sure that the U.S. will argue for greater access for agricultural products. He said that the UK will be asking for more government procurement access, and for British airlines to be able to fly between U.S. cities. Darroch, who was speaking at the annual Global Services Summit on Oct. 17, expressed confidence that Britain will not crash out of the European Union, but instead Brexit will follow a "shallow and reliable glide path" with a transition period from March 29 next year through Dec. 31, 2020. No U.S.-UK trade deal can be signed until the UK is out of the EU customs union.
The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers says trade negotiators have made "a heck of a lot of progress" with Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan, and "all of those agreements are going to look similar" to the rewritten NAFTA. Kevin Hassett was speaking at the Global Services Summit on Oct. 17, as he was interviewed by Laura Lane, UPS president of global public affairs. Technically, none of those trade negotiations have opened, as they are not allowed to until Congress sets priorities. The day before Hassett spoke, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notified Congress of its intention to begin negotiations (see 1810160057). Hassett said President Donald Trump told his staff, "Once I get a deal with one country, I bet they're really going to cascade, the deals."