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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
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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
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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
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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
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USTR Launches New Section 301 Actions: Key Developments for Importers 

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has recently announced a series of significant Section 301 actions targeting a range of trade-related concerns, including intellectual property protection, forced labor, and alleged unfair trade practices. Collectively, these developments demonstrate the Administration’s continued willingness to utilize Section 301 as a tool to address perceived barriers to U.S. commerce and advance broader trade policy objectives. 

Vietnam

On May 29, 2026, USTR published a Federal Register Notice announcing an investigation of Vietnam under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The investigation follows identifying Vietnam as a Priority Foreign Country in the 2026 Special 301 Report, which was published on April 30, 2026. The investigation will seek to determine whether Vietnam’s persistent failure to resolve long-standing concerns about intellectual property (IP) protection and enforcement is unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce

Once the investigation is complete, Ambassador Greer will determine what, if any, responsive action should be taken to address them. Comments in this proceeding are due July 2, 2026. 

Brazil

On June 2, 2026, USTR published a Federal Register Notice announcing a determination under Section 301 that certain of Brazil’s acts, policies, and practices are unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce, and are thus actionable under Section 301(b) of the Trade Act. These acts, policies, and practices include: 

    […]
By |2026-06-05T11:10:41-04:00June 5, 2026|Enforcement, Enforcement, Forced Labor, International Trade, Special 301, tariffs, Trade Policy, U.S. Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR)|0 Comments
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