TradeLane

It’s been an extraordinary year in international trade. Higher duties, more complex supply chains driven by trade actions, and a pandemic that has left many businesses understaffed in important areas.

As we strive in the US to obtain enough personal protective equipment to keep first responders and the general populace safe, the rules for importing these essential items seem murky at best.  There is a lengthy list of PPE products flowing into the United States, so let’s target masks for today’s discussion.

As many of our readers are aware, on April 19^th, 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the postponement of duties for formal entries of merchandise entered, or withdrawn from a warehouse for consumption in March and April 2020 for importers experiencing significant financial hardship due to COVID-19. 

On November 27, 2019 Customs uploaded the final version of the new CTPAT Minimum Security Criteria (MSC) into their webpage and the CTPAT Portal. This is the culmination of a three-year effort to update the CTPAT criteria to fulfill legal mandates, adjust to a changing trade landscape, apply lessons learned, and adapt to ever-evolving terrorism and criminal threats.

Following a 15 years dispute between the United States and the European Union regarding aviation industry-related subsidies, the World Trade Organization recently issued a report that justifies up to USD $7.5 billion annually in countermeasures made by the US against EU countries as a result.