President Issues Memorandum to Combat Counterfeit, Pirated Goods President Trump issued a memorandum that directs federal agencies to develop plans for battling against the dangers and negative effects of counterfeit and pirated goods. This includes imported goods that move through third-party intermediaries such as, carriers, forwarders, vendors, brokers and others parties throughout the import process. The memo has made the prevention of the manufacture, importation, and sale of counterfeit and pirated goods a federal priority. The memo also encourages The Department of Homeland Security, along with other agencies such as, the Department of Commerce and the Office of the USTR, to develop stronger partnerships and practices with third party intermediaries to help deter the illicit imports. It directs the agencies to submit a report to the President by October 10, 2019 to evaluate current practices and policies while identifying possible improvements. This memorandum can be found on the Whitehouse website.
President Trump Hopeful for China Deal President Trump, while speaking to reporters on April 4, said that he will not schedule a summit meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping until both sides have agreed on ways to resolve the issue for U.S. complaints on China’s industrial processes and market access for the U.S. He did add that they have agreed to far more than they have left to agree on. He expressed hope that a deal could be announced as soon as 4 weeks
Delays on Southern Border Due to Reassignments U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has had to make reassignments of CBP officers along the Southern Border due to the humanitarian and security challenges for undocumented immigrants coming to the United States. In total, 750 CBP officers have been reassigned for this urgent task. These officers have been pulled from the offices of ports all along the Border. This has left a shortage of officers to work at full speed at those ports and the release of cargo has been delayed. Most of the larger ports have closed some truck lanes for moving cargo into the U.S. CBP has all their offices open for regular hours, but delays are to be expected. We will monitor this situation closely.