General

A few days ago, the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled new legislation that would block the use of a threshold that allows imports worth less than $800 to enter the U.S. without paying duties, taxes or fees.

"The number of packages we receive in the U.S. has soared to more than 2 million per day, and that number will only climb in the coming years," said U.S. House of Representatives Trade Committee Chairman Blumenauer. “As long as foreign companies selling in the U.S. unbundle goods and evade tariffs and regulations, U.S. businesses will continue to be at a competitive cost disadvantage. This loophole also makes it easier for people to import illegal and harmful products because it’s practically impossible to judge Whether the packages contain products made through illegal labor, intellectual property theft, or are otherwise dangerous."

Specifically, Blumenauer said the legislation would:

Barring goods from non-market economies and countries on the USTR’s watch list from using minimums: To address concerns related to U.S. competitiveness, legislation prohibits goods from “non-market economies” from benefiting from minimal minimal treatment .

Prohibition of Minimum Use of Goods Subject to Enforcement Actions: U.S. enforcement regulations, such as Sections 301 and 232, provide the United States with leverage to address unfair trade practices that harm American workers and companies. Blumenauer said that exempting trace shipments from enforcement-related duties has significantly reduced that impact, even though trace shipments subject to other enforcement actions, such as anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders, are still subject to duties.

Close the smallest loopholes in offshore distribution or processing facilities.

Require Customs and Border Protection to collect more information on all trace shipments and ban bad actors: To address concerns about compliance with U.S. law, this provision makes common sense changes to require CBP to collect more information on trace shipments and bans importers that have been suspended or banned from using the bare minimum. This provision provides statutory support for the ongoing work already initiated by multiple CBP administrations.

The legislation is supported by the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO) and the American Manufacturing Alliance.

"We very much support Chairman Blumenauer's bill, which would effectively prohibit China and all non-market economies from taking advantage of the Section 321 micro-mechanism in U.S. trade law, a disruption that seriously harms American companies and workers and our Western Hemisphere trading partners. sexual vulnerability while also endangering American consumers," said NCTO President and CEO Kim Glas. "We applaud the Chair's leadership on this critical issue and look forward to working with the House Ways and Means Committee's trade subcommittee to move this legislation forward."

"We support the introduction of this legislation to reform minimum thresholds, which are often used to evade U.S. enforcement actions against China and other trade fraud," said Scott Paul, president of the American Manufacturing Alliance. “This bill targets the worst offenders while also addressing loopholes that bad actors use to evade taxes, duties and fees. We strongly encourage Congress to pass these reforms while ensuring additional measures are in place to monitor transshipment and trace amounts from other countries An increase in traffic.”