The Treasury Department published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda for CBP. There are no mentions of any new trade-related rulemakings, though the agency did move two rules off its agenda to a lower-priority list of planned long-term actions. One of the rules would finalize in the customs regulations the increase of the de minimis level from $200 to $800 under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015. The other would amend CBP's regulations on disclosure of information regarding merchandise bearing suspected counterfeit trademarks by creating "a procedure for the disclosure of information otherwise protected by the Trade Secrets Act to a trademark owner when merchandise bearing suspected counterfeit trademarks has been voluntarily abandoned."
Sixteen trade groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, PhRMA and BIO, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to press Mexico to comply with its USMCA commitments during her trip to Mexico for the Free Trade Commission meeting.
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Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., recently said CBP needs to do more to know what's inside packages imported under the de minimis threshold, adding that the agency “has no idea what's coming in.”
The ability to import low-value packages without paying duties is a benefit to consumers and businesses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other trade groups that use de minimis are arguing, as they lobby against bipartisan efforts to curtail de minimis eligibility.
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican who said he was tough on China before more senators got on the bandwagon, said corporate interests and U.S. interests have diverged when it comes to globalization. Rubio, who represents Florida, was speaking at a American Compass event June 21 on Capitol Hill.
Chinese online shopping platform Temu has no procedures to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which “all but guarantees” imports from the company violate the UFLPA, the House Select Committee on China said this week. In a new report, the committee said both Temu and Chinese online retailer Shein “rely heavily” on the de minimis exception when shipping packages to the U.S., allowing them to avoid CBP scrutiny of potential forced labor violations.
CBP and the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, or COAC, have "several issues where the COAC and CBP have agreed to disagree," in a customs modernization proposal, said Flexport's Caroline Dale (see 2306050069), but the lengthy work to come to consensus is just the start.
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CBP hopes that the customs modernization law is passed in time to use its authorities in the reprogramming of ACE, with a goal of providing CBP and partner government agencies "with better quality data, much earlier in the supply chain, often in real time," John Leonard, deputy executive assistant commissioner in CBP's Office of Trade, said June 20.