The Commerce Department published notices in the Dec. 18 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP's “restrained enforcement” of the USMCA provisions will end as previously planned after Dec. 31 (see 2011040039), acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said during the Dec. 16 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting. “Starting with the new year, CBP will enforce the USMCA as it does all other trade agreements,” he said. The agency allowed for lax enforcement of certifications of origin requirements for six months after the deal took effect so industry could adjust to the changes (see 2006020023). The CBP USMCA Center, created to help with USMCA implementation (see 2005120042), will remain in place for another three to five years, he said.
The Border Trade Alliance wants the USMCA “technical corrections” fix to leave the treatment of foreign-trade zones out, it said. BTA said it opposes the change “that would prevent goods manufactured within an FTZ from receiving reduced or duty-free treatment” under the agreement that replaced NAFTA and took effect July 1. “USMCA is a trade agreement for the 21st century, but reinstating an old NAFTA-era rule turns back the clock on U.S. manufacturing competitiveness,” BTA Chair Sergio Contreras said. “In keeping with the goal of modernizing U.S. trade policy under USMCA, products produced within FTZs should qualify for duty-free treatment.” The group thanked the six senators who publicly said they oppose the inclusion of FTZ rule of origin changes in a technical fixes bill.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, accused Democrats of holding up renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and said it's unjustified, “because it's always been very bipartisan, and for the most part, almost unanimous.” Referring to Democratic proposals to reform GSP, he said Dec. 15 that “some of the things they’re asking to do are legitimate, but we didn’t hear about some of these things until November 27th, and some of them are technical things that it takes a long time to work out.”
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., says that the new administration should prioritize a free trade deal with the European Union following the template of USMCA, saying President Donald Trump's abandonment of serious trade talks with Europe was a “particularly detrimental blunder.”
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Dec. 10. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:
Golf clubs assembled in Mexico from titanium heads manufactured in Taiwan and carbon fiber shafts from China must be marked products of both, and the value of the shaft is subject to Section 301 tariffs, CBP said in a Dec. 2 ruling. The golf clubs do not undergo a substantial transformation in Mexico nor the required USMCA tariff shift, and both the shaft and head give the golf clubs their essential character, CBP said in ruling HQ H312495, posted to the agency’s ruling database on Dec. 10.
President-elect Joe Biden announced Dec. 10 that he's selecting House Ways and Means Committee Chief Trade Counsel Katherine Tai to be the next U.S. trade representative, saying that her deep experience will allow the administration to “harness the power of our trading relationships to help the U.S. dig out of the COVID-induced economic crisis and pursue the President-elect’s vision of a pro-American worker trade strategy.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Dec. 9 announced that he'll be seeking consultations with Mary Ng, his Canadian counterpart, over the way that Canada allocated tariff rate quotas. Canadian processors are guaranteed a percentage of those import quotas, and the U.S. says that undermines American producers' access to Canada. “President [Donald] Trump successfully renegotiated the USMCA to replace the failed NAFTA, and a key improvement was to give U.S. dairy producers fairer access to Canada’s highly protected dairy market,” he said. “We are disappointed that Canada’s policies have made this first ever enforcement action under the USMCA necessary to ensure compliance with the agreement.”