LinkedInFacebookInstagramXYouTube
305-456-3830|info@diaztradelaw.com

U.S. Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)

Call 305-456-3830 or email info@diaztradelaw.com.

The U.S. Declined to Renew USMCA – What Importers Must Do Now

USMCA remains in force, but annual reviews create a new layer of origin compliance risk that importers can’t afford to ignore. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

  • USMCA did not end. On July 1, 2026, the U.S. declined to renew the agreement for a fresh 16-year term, moving it into annual reviews. The pact stays in force, potentially through 2036, unless a country formally exits with six months’ notice. 
  • Nothing changes at the port tomorrow. USMCA-qualifying goods still enter duty-free. Your certifications, rules-of-origin claims, and preference elections remain valid today. 
  • The real risk is enforcement, not policy. A decade of open renegotiation puts rules of origin, especially auto content and regional-value-content thresholds, into permanent play. Origin claims made under old assumptions become audit and penalty exposure. 
  • Act now on documentation, not headlines. Importers should stress-test USMCA certifications, tighten origin recordkeeping, and model exposure to Section 232 auto/steel/aluminum tariffs that already sit on top of the agreement. 

The Challenge: Compliance & Enforcement 

The news landed fast and loud: the United States declined to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on July 1, 2026. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed the U.S. would forgo a fresh 16-year term in favor of annual reviews of the pact. Some coverage framed this as the end of North American free trade. It is not. 

Here is the […]

By |2026-07-02T07:30:25-04:00July 2, 2026|Import, Trade Policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), USMCA|0 Comments
Read More

CAPE Phase II Is Live: Most IEEPA Duties Are Now Refund-Eligible — Here’s How to Claim Yours 

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

  • As of June 29, 2026, CBP’s CAPE system reached Phase II — enhanced processing for reconciliation-flagged entries, making the large majority of IEEPA duties eligible for refund. 
  • Refunds are not automatic for every entry type. Eligibility, filing method, and ACH enrollment all matter — and finally, liquidated entries are treated differently depending on whether you filed a CIT lawsuit. 
  • The window rewards speed and documentation. Importers who reconcile their IEEPA-dutied entries now will recover capital sooner; those who wait risk falling into later, slower phases. 

Tariff Refunds – a Moving Target 

If your business paid duties imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), you have likely been watching a moving target: litigation over whether those duties were lawfully collected, a refund mechanism built in phases, and shifting guidance on which entries qualify and when. The result is paralysis — many importers know money may be owed back to them, but cannot tell whether, how, or when to claim it. 

That uncertainty has a real cost. Every month, a refund-eligible entry that sits unaddressed, working capital tied up at CBP rather than in your business. And because the refund framework is being rolled out in stages, the entries you can act on today are not the same as the ones you will be able to act on next month — sequencing matters. 

CAPE Phase II Now […]

By |2026-06-29T09:50:10-04:00June 29, 2026|ACE, Import, tariffs, Trade Policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)|0 Comments
Read More

De Minimis, Codified: CBP Finalizes the Postal Suspension Rule — July 24 Comment Deadline

KEY TAKEAWAYS 

  • De minimis is not new news — the $800 duty-free exemption was already suspended for all countries on August 29, 2025. What’s new is CBP’s interim final rule codifying the postal piece and creating a formal postal informal entry process. 
  • Two key dates: the postal IFR takes effect July 24, 2026 (compliance by October 22, 2026), and public comments on the rulemaking are due July 24, 2026. 
  • If your business ships low-value parcels by mail, the entry mechanics are now being locked into regulation. The comment window is your one chance to shape them before they harden. 

De Minimis Is Over. Now CBP Is Writing the New Rules.

For years, the de minimis exemption was the quiet engine of e-commerce: shipments valued at or under $800 entered the United States free of duty and with minimal formality. That era already ended. As we covered in De Minimis No More: What It Means for Importers and Consumers, a July 30, 2025, Executive Order suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for all countries effective August 29, 2025, accelerating the repeal that the 2025 budget law had set for July 1, 2027. 

So the headline is not that de minimis is ending — it ended ten months ago. The development now is regulatory: CBP is codifying how low-value shipments, particularly through the international mail channel, must be […]

By |2026-06-29T09:44:50-04:00June 29, 2026|Import, Pre-compliance, tariffs, Trade Policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)|0 Comments
Read More

CAPE Now Accepts Reconciliation-Flagged Entries — But File in the Wrong Order and You Forfeit the Refund

If you have entries flagged for reconciliation and a reconciliation deadline inside the next 30 days, the order in which you file has just become a decision that can cost you your IEEPA refund. Under CBP’s June 29, 2026, CAPE deployment, once you file the reconciliation entry (Type 09), the underlying entries are locked out of CAPE in this phase. File the recon first, and you have stripped your own entries of the consolidated IEEPA refund path — permanently, for now. The new functionality is genuinely good news. The trap is in the sequence. 

Key points:

  • New as of June 29, 2026: CAPE will accept entries flagged for reconciliation (Entry Types 01, 02, 06) even when no Type 09 reconciliation entry has been filed yet. 
  • The sequence that wins: File the CAPE Declaration FIRST. CAPE strips the IEEPA duties from the flagged entries, then you file the reconciliation. 
  • The sequence that loses: File the reconciliation entry first. The underlying entries are then ineligible for CAPE in this phase. 
  • Still not covered: Entries where the reconciliation entry is already on file — those wait for a future CAPE phase. 

Same eligibility limits as Phase 1 carry over: unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation only. 

The Challenge: Reconciliation Was a Hole in Phase 1 

When CBP launched Phase 1 of the Consolidated Administration […]

By |2026-06-26T12:30:43-04:00June 26, 2026|ACE, Import, tariffs, Trade Policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)|0 Comments
Read More

New Section 232 Action: What the June 2026 Aluminum, Steel & Copper Proclamation Means for Your Imports

Topline summary: On June 1, 2026, President Trump amended the Section 232 tariff framework for aluminum, steel, and copper. Importers of agricultural, industrial, and mobile equipment may qualify for temporarily reduced rates of 10–15%, while certain furniture parts, lithographic plates, and steel racks are newly dutiable for the first time. With a December 31, 2027, sunset on all temporary reductions, importers should audit their HTS classifications now to avoid overpaying or underpaying.

On June 1, 2026, the President issued Proclamation 11032, “Further Adjusting the Tariff Regimes for Imports of Aluminum, Steel, and Copper Into the United States,” amending the April 2026 Section 232 framework (Proclamation 11021). U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) followed on June 5 with implementation guidance in CSMS #68855869. The changes take effect for goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from a warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. ET on June 8, 2026. 

This is not a uniform tariff cut. The proclamation does two opposite things at once. It reduces Section 232 rates on a large block of machinery and equipment, while simultaneously adding new products to the duty regime for the first time. If you import equipment, the change may help you. If you import certain furniture parts, lithographic plates, or steel racks, you may have just become newly dutiable.  

What Changed on June 8 

  1. New products […]

By |2026-06-08T17:20:18-04:00June 8, 2026|Import, International Trade, tariffs, Trade Policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), U.S. Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)|0 Comments
Read More
This website uses cookies and third party services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the Privacy Policy. OK
Skip to content
Go to Top