CBP should recognize imports of goods under the $800 de minimis threshold as entries, as a way to help prevent low value goods made with forced labor from coming into the U.S., the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments to DHS on implementing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. "By treating the commercial de minimis exemption instead as an entry of merchandise, the Government can continue to promote the administrative ease that section 321 affords legitimate gift and personal use shipments, while also ensuring goods imported under the commercial de minimis exemption are eligible and admissible and pose no threat to our country’s economy, safety, health, or security and particularly are free of forced labor," the trade group said.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., speaking at an event about his proposal to remove Chinese exports' eligibility for de minimis, suggested that if the provision does not pass as part of a compromise China package, he's got a Plan B. The language in his bill says that de minimis won't be available to any non-market economy that's on the priority watch list. "Now, coincidentally, that's just China," Blumenauer said with a grin during the Rethink Trade webinar March 9.
CBP is working on some new guidance for the withhold release order aimed at silica-based products from Hoshine Silicon Industry in Xinjiang, China (see 2108030026), said Eric Choy, acting executive director of the Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate. Choy and other agency officials spoke on a March 4 webinar that was later posted to the Solar Energy Industries Association website. "We are working through our own administrative procedures here right now to make sure it meets the administrative requirements" to post on the agency's site, he said.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the author of the trade provisions within the House China package, said that a virtual conference committee has begun discussing a compromise between the House and Senate bills. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is making it harder to find the time to make progress, he said. There has been no public announcement that the chambers weren't going to use a formal conference committee (see 2202020055), or that negotiations had begun.
The National Electrical Manufacturers Association is asking House and Senate leadership to "expeditiously advance" a compromise China package by resolving differences between the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA) and the America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength (America Competes) Act.
Descartes Systems Group bought NetCHB for $40 million, "plus potential performance-based consideration," the companies said Feb. 10. NetCHB, headquartered in Arizona, helps in automating customs broker filings, including for Section 321 Type 86 entries, Descartes said. "The maximum amount payable under the all-cash performance-based earn-out is $60.0 million, based on NetCHB achieving revenue-based targets over the first two years post-acquisition," it said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The House passed its China package, the America Competes Act, on a nearly party-line vote, with one Democrat dissenting and one Republican voting for it. The America Competes Act and the Senate's U.S. Innovation and Competition Act both propose subsidizing American semiconductor manufacturing and both propose investing in science research to better counter China's play for technological dominance, but the House version spends far more money and includes some priorities that the Senate did not, such as $2 billion annually for climate change foreign assistance and a generous reauthorization of Trade Adjustment Assistance. The vote was 221-210.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hopes to be able to support the House China package, since the trade group supported the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, but said the House bill "continues to include numerous policies that would undermine U.S. competitiveness, and Members are being denied the opportunity to vote on amendments to address these issues." The Chamber said it will push during the conference process to get better bill.
Although it's not clear whether a full conference committee will be convened, or there will be an informal conference to reconcile the House and Senate packages, some Republicans are leaving the door open to incorporating the antidumping duty and countervailing duty law changes that only appear in the House's America Competes Act. Leading voices on trade in both the House and Senate, however, said the Senate version of renewing the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill should take precedence over those put forward in the Competes Act, since the Senate trade title had strong bipartisan support.