With just 14 days in session scheduled for the House of Representatives before the end of the year, Ways and Means Committee members are not expressing optimism that a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program will be one of the items that gets a vote this Congress.

In addition to tariff hikes expected in 2025, trade experts are also thinking about the 2026 review of USMCA, and the investment and supply chain planning uncertainty that is likely to follow.

DETROIT -- Cindy Allen, owner of consultancy firm Trade Force Multiplier, said she believes some of the initiatives in the 21st Century Customs Framework bills are useful -- such as simplifying CBP's process for seizures -- but that overall, the focus is too heavy on enforcement.

NEW YORK -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission's intent to require information from certificates of compliance to be filed in ACE next year is alarming brokers, according to Erin Williamson, vice president of customs brokerage at GEODIS USA.

Trade attorneys continue to wait and wonder what kind of tariff changes will come next year, with one observer using a tariff slide that said "Tariff Armageddon."

NEW YORK -- The executive director of CBP's Office of Trade Relations told U.S. Fashion Industry Association conference attendees this week that CBP thought crossing the 1 billion de minimis packages threshold was big, but then volume increased about 40% in the 2024 fiscal year. Felicia Pullam said CBP cannot handle that kind of massive increase and is confident it's stopping dangerous contact lenses, vapes, toys with lead paint, counterfeit airbags, medicines and other illicit goods.

NEW YORK -- Brian Hoxie, director of CBP's Forced Labor Division, told an apparel industry conference audience this week that DHS has been hearing their pleas for more transparency in forced labor enforcement.

NEW YORK -- Tyler Beckelman, a Commerce deputy assistant secretary who also sits on the interagency Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, told a garment industry audience that the Biden administration still intends to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on de minimis "before we all turn into pumpkins on Jan. 20."

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

A past trade staffer from the Senate Finance Committee said that if Congress wanted to write tariffs into law in order to use that revenue as a partial pay-for in tax cut extensions, those tariffs would likely wait until January 2026, as that's when the tax laws would take effect.