Breaking Trade News: CAPE Update, New Foreign IOR Guidance

This week’s recap of the latest customs and international trade news:

CBP submitted a CAPE update to the Court of International Trade (CIT) on November 10. Highlights:
- 321,021 CAPE declarations submitted
- $138B refunds accepted for processing
- 44M entries covered by CAPE declarations
- 18,072 refunds rejected due to incomplete ACH information
CBP published several documents regarding the new foreign importer of record requirements on the ACE CATAIR webpage.
CBP published a new FAQ stating that a significant amount of unencumbered real property in the United States meets CBP’s definition of U.S. importer of record in its recent interim final rule.
CBP deactivated over 400,000 importer of record accounts between Sept. 11 and Oct. 16 due to inactivity – reporting by International Trade Today.
CBP published a CSMS message explaining that new electronic validation checks may reject entries and entry summaries beginning January 5, 2027, when foreign importers lack the required CTPAT-validated status or broker representation.
CBP’s Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team at Chicago O’Hare International Airport seized a shipment containing various counterfeit watches and steroids on Halloween. Had these items been genuine, the shipment would have had a combined manufacturer’s suggested retail price of over $6.2 million.
CBP announced the seizure of 290 cartons of lithium batteries worth nearly $1 million featuring unauthorized Bluetooth branding.

On November 9, 2026, Judge Richard K. Eaton granted a consent motion setting the schedule in Freestyle World, Inc. v. CBP (Ct. No. 26-01088), the IEEPA duty refund class action. The next filing is a motion asking the court to direct CBP to liquidate or reliquidate class members’ IEEPA entries. The government must respond to the motion seeking class-wide liquidation or reliquidation of IEEPA entries by December 9, 2026.

BIS published a final rule extending the suspension of expanded end-user controls for affiliates of certain listed entities. The suspension now runs through January 10, 2027.

Commerce announced new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations involving certain railway tank cars and subassemblies from Mexico.
Commerce issued preliminary affirmative AD determinations on polytetramethylene ether glycol from China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Commerce announced preliminary affirmative antidumping duty determinations involving tin mill products from Taiwan and Türkiye.

USTR published a notice modifying its Section 301 action, extending the suspension of measures targeting China’s maritime, logistics, and shipbuilding sectors through January 10, 2027. The extension allows additional discussions with China regarding the practices identified in the investigation.
USTR published a Federal Register Notice extending the investigation on whether Vietnamese actors’ intellectual property infringement is burdening American commerce to February 28, 2027.

The FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
- 99-39: Imported Food Products that appear to be Misbranded
- 95-05: Electronic Products that fail to comply with Performance Standards or to have Required Certification
- 76-01: Medical Instruments from Pakistan
- 45-02: Foods Containing Illegal and/or Undeclared Colors
- 40-05: Infant Formulas that appear to be Adulterated and/or Misbranded
The FDA published a Federal Register Notice revoking the use of three substances in color additive production.

OFAC designated eight Canadian money services businesses for their involvement in financial activities supporting Iran’s sanctions-evasion networks.

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon who will be the chair of the Senate Finance Committee starting in January, told reporters that he’ll push a vote to end tariffs on Canada.

Want more customs and international trade news? Sign up for our weekly snapshot!