USMCA

CBP posted multiple documents ahead of the March 17 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

CBP's continued application of Part 102 NAFTA marking rules for goods imported from Canada and Mexico (see 2103100025) doesn't include some agricultural goods imported under USMCA, said Monika Brenner, chief of the CBP Valuation and Special Programs Branch, during the virtual Georgetown Law International Trade Update on March 10. “For certain goods, it's designated as an S+ in the special subcolumn,” she said. “And for those you actually have to figure out if it's a good of Canada or a good of Mexico.”

CBP will allow importers to continue to use Part 102 NAFTA marking rules for goods imported from Canada and Mexico, even though they are no longer a requirement for USMCA preferences, said James Kim, a lawyer with CBP’s Office of Regulations and Rulings currently working at the agency’s USMCA center, during a Zoom call following a panel discussion March 9.

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated March 3. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:

Joseph Barloon, former Office the U.S. Trade Representative official, has rejoined Skadden Arps as a partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, the law firm announced in a March 1 news release. Barloon served as general counsel from 2019 to 2020 and then as acting deputy USTR from 2020 to 2021, overseeing litigation against the U.S.'s largest trading partners and implementation of the USMCA. Barloon was nominated to be a judge at the Court of International Trade by President Donald Trump but wasn't confirmed (see 2102050032).

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Feb. 22-26 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said March 2 that he hasn't yet gone over Katherine Tai's written answers after her hearing but that he expects to vote for her confirmation as U.S. trade representative. Although he didn't work with Tai personally on USMCA, he said his team did so and “had nothing but good things to say about her.” Grassley said he doesn't expect to be able to tell how trade policy is going to unfold from the written answers (see 2103010026). “I think she’ll be approved a long time before we know exactly how” President Joe Biden's “administration is going to handle U.K.” negotiations, if it's going rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership, “what they’re going to do in regard to China, what they’re going to do in sub-Saharan Africa, like [President Donald] Trump was starting with Kenya,” he said during a conference call with reporters. “I think you’re going to get well into the middle of the year before you see any direction.”

The Biden administration is emphasizing the need to fight forced labor and exploitative labor conditions, as well as using trade to fight climate change, in the first Trade Agenda published since President Joe Biden took office.

Across dozens of pages of written answers to Senate Finance Committee members, U.S. trade representative nominee Katherine Tai often avoided directly answering questions, instead pledging to work with senators on their priorities. One of the most common questions posed to Tai was whether she would renew Section 301 exclusions that expired last year; as well, whether she would allow companies that were denied exclusions another chance at a request; and whether she would reopen the exclusion process.