Fifty-two Democratic lawmakers led by House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, urged the Trump administration April 2 to stop using tariffs to block sales of oil to Cuba, saying the “blockade” is worsening the island country’s humanitarian crisis.
The U.S. agreed to liquidate importer Topcon Positioning Systems' rotated laser levers and pipe laser levels and parts and accessories to the laser levels under duty-free subheadings, according to a stipulated judgment filed at the Court of International Trade on March 31 (Topcon Positioning Systems v. United States, CIT # 14-00189).
The Court of International Trade on April 1 said it's satisfied with the progress CBP is making on standing up an administrative process for doling out refunds for tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (Atmus Filtration v. United States, CIT # 26-01259).
CBP said that as of March 26, the importers of record who have signed up for direct deposit for refunds account for 78% of the entries that are owed refunds now that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs have been ruled unlawful. A headline on a March 31 story on CBP's plans for refunds (see 2603310030) incorrectly described the statistic.
The annual National Trade Estimate, which enumerates hundreds of tariff and non-tariff barriers to U.S. goods and services exports, asserted it would try to "quantitatively assess the potential effect of removing certain foreign trade barriers to particular U.S. exports," but the estimate largely steers clear of estimating the value of lost export sales.
A panel of trade experts offered a candid assessment of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), calling it a powerful engine of regional integration that's increasingly strained by unresolved disputes, tariff tensions and shifting geopolitical pressures as the pact approaches its first joint review.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, on Bloomberg TV, said he expects the establishment of a Board of Trade to manage trade between the U.S. and China to be one of the major deliverables of the May summit planned between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.
Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, asked the Commerce Department to open an investigation on the national security threat of imports of heavy machinery, such as products made by John Deere and Caterpillar.
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CBP said it expects the first phase of its automated refund system for International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs to cover about 63% of entries that paid or deposited the duties. That includes unliquidated entries and entries that will still be in the 90-day window when CBP is able to initiate reliquidation.