The president of Mexico has introduced a bill increasing tariffs on goods from countries with which it does not have a free trade agreement, including China. The measure would bring most tariffs to a rate of 35%, with some as high as 50%.
Goods subject to International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs are eligible for refunds of those tariffs via post-importation claims under USMCA, provided that importers of record can submit a valid, substantiated claim under USMCA within one year of the date of importation, according to a Sept. 10 update to CBP's FAQ webpage on questions related to IEEPA.
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 Court of International Trade on Sept. 8 dismissed exporter Pipe & Piling Supplies' case against the 2022-23 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on large diameter welded pipe from Canada, for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Judge Jane Restani said the company failed to notify the other interested parties of its lawsuit as required by the USMCA, as required by 19 U.S.C. 1516a(g)(3)(B), adding that this requirement is a jurisdictional one.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that her government is considering imposing tariffs on countries with which Mexico doesn't have a trade agreement, including China.
CBP is correcting mistakes it made in an interim final rule published in January amending regulations for the USMCA, the agency said in a notice to be published Sept. 8. CBP said that the USMCA IFR "inadvertently omitted" a conforming amendment, removed paragraphs unrelated to USMCA amendments, and contained an "inaccurate amendatory instruction." The omitted amendment was the instructions for 19 CFR 10.224 and the removed paragraphs were from 19 CFR 10.237 and 113.62. The inaccurate amendatory instruction led to the omission of an amendment to the Appendix to 19 CFR part 163.
It's unlikely -- but not impossible -- that an importer will be able to obtain a refund on paying fentanyl tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when the importer hadn't claimed USMCA at entry beforehand, according to trade attorney Michael Roll, who was speaking on a Sept. 3 webinar sponsored by A.N. Deringer.
Trade attorneys helping importers comply with duty collection regulations are seeing Customs officials increase their scrutiny of entry filings via a higher rate of CF-28 forms being sent to companies, according to comments made during various webinars this week.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Sept. 4 on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CVD rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
House Ways and Means Committee members met with Mexico's Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard about the upcoming sunset review of USMCA, and two Republicans on the committee said most of the conversation was about how useful the free trade agreement is.