Weekly Tariff & Trade Update | Key Moves This Week (3/18/26)
While Section 122, which the Trump Administration used to replace the IEEPA tariffs, is already being challenged in courts and knowing that it can only last for 150 days, the Administration is preparing by starting a number of investigations as outlined below…
USTR Launches Section 301 Investigation into 16 Economies
- New investigations into structural excess manufacturing capacity and local overproduction
- Tariffs, quotas, and other trade remedies as possible outcomes
- Timeline begins on March 17, when the comments docket opens
- https://ustr.gov/about/policy-offices/press-office/fact-sheets/2026/march/fact-sheet-ustr-initiates-section-301-investigations-structural-excess-capacity-and-production
USTR Launches Section 301 Investigation into 60 Countries for Forced Labor Violations
- The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on Thursday, March 12, initiated investigations into 60 countries under Section 301(b) of the 1974 Trade Act. “The investigations will determine whether acts, policies, and practices of each of these economies related to the failure to impose and effectively enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce,” USTR said.
- USTR has requested consultations with the governments of these 60 countries regarding the investigations and will hold related hearings in Washington, D.C., on April 28. Interested persons should submit written comments and requests to appear at the hearing, along with a summary of the testimony, by April 15.
- A pre-publication version of the Federal Register notice is available here, which includes the list of the 60 countries. A docket for comments regarding the investigation will be available here, while a docket for requests to appear at the public hearing to be held in connection with this investigation will be available here.
Guidance and Action Plan Regarding IEEPA Tariff Refunds
- In yet another response to CIT, Brandon Lord, Executive Director of Trade Programs for CBP’s Office of Trade, outlines the progress CBP has made in building the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system.
- CBP Outlines ACE IEEPA Refund Programming Progress to CIT Judge Eaton
- On March 12, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided an outline of its ACE IEEPA refund programming so far to Court of International Trade (CIT) Judge Robert Eaton. This new ACE functionality will be called the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE), according to the filing submitted to CIT by Brandon Lord, Executive Director of Trade Programs for CBP’s Office of Trade.
- The CAPE Claim Portal will be web-based and serve as the entry point for importers and customs brokers to submit IEEPA refund requests (“CAPE Declaration”) to CBP. Once operational, a new tab will be available in both importer and customs broker ACE Portal accounts.
- CBP is designing CAPE with four integrated components:
- Claim Portal,
- Mass Processing,
- Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation, and
- Refund.
- “These components reflect both how CBP anticipates refund requests will proceed through CAPE and how CBP is structuring its development efforts,” Lord said.
- As of March 11, CBP estimates that its development of the Claim Portal component is 70% complete. Lord said, CBP has “finished developing the Claim Portal user interface and is currently developing the programming necessary to run the automated validations described above and provide information about validation errors to the CAPE Declaration filer.”
- The agency said the CAPE Mass Processing component will “automatically remove any applicable IEEPA HTS numbers from the entry summaries submitted to and validated by the CAPE Claim Portal component. After the IEEPA HTS numbers are removed, the Mass Processing component runs the ACE duty calculation validations.” As of March 11, CBP estimates that its development of the Mass Processing component is 40% complete. “CBP’s development efforts are currently focused on the automated entry summary update process and related validations,” Lord said.
- CAPE will also initiate the review and liquidation/reliquidation process for the entries identified in the accepted CAPE Declaration. This component will automatically set the entries to liquidate/reliquidate on a specified number of days from the acceptance date, allowing CBP to conduct a manual review as needed. CBP is developing additional functionality within this CAPE component to streamline any required agency review. It will also process liquidations/reliquidations of entries on a CAPE Declaration, Monday through Thursday, each week. CBP estimates that its development of the Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation component is 80% complete as of March 11.
- When the entry summaries in the accepted CAPE Declaration reach the scheduled liquidation/reliquidation date, ACE will direct those entries to a CAPE-specific refund process within the ACE Collections refunds module.
- As of March 11, CBP estimates that its development of the Refund component is 60% complete. CBP has completed the development of CAPE-specific refund-processing functionality within the ACE Collections framework. Currently, CBP is “performance testing” the CAPE refund consolidation process. CBP plans to complete additional development to further integrate the component with the other CAPE components and conduct additional performance testing in the next few weeks.
- “CBP expects that in its first phase of development, CAPE will be able to process the majority of formal and informal entries on which IEEPA duties were paid, other than unliquidated entries subject to antidumping or countervailing duties, or entries for which the liquidation status in ACE is “Suspended,” “Extended,” or “Under Review,” and certain other entry types such as warehouse withdrawals, entries designated on a drawback claim, etc.,” Lord said. “CBP will provide detailed guidance to users regarding the scope and functionality of each phase of development as it is implemented.”
Potential First Sale Rule Change – Senate Bill Targets Valuation Practice
- New legislation could eliminate the long-standing First Sale rule used by many importers
- Last Sale Valuation Act introduced February 2026
- Duties would be assist based on final US transactional value
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