International trade, cross-border commerce, tariffs, customs, and global market dynamics.
Two Minnesota shoppers sued Target on 25 September over the $994 million IEEPA tariff refund it booked in August, asking a federal judge to order the money returned to customers. It is the second consumer class action against the retailer on that theory, and part of a wave of more than 80 such suits.
US Customs and Border Protection has issued two Withhold Release Orders blocking palm oil and derivative products from Indonesian producers Mitra Aneka Rezeki and Hardaya Inti Plantation. Shipments are detained at all US ports of entry, and importers must prove by clear and convincing evidence that no forced labor was involved.
The Commerce Secretary must give the President an update on hardwood timber and lumber imports by October 1, 2026 under Proclamation 10976. The report decides whether new duties hit hardwood and its derivatives, on top of 25 percent rates already running on furniture and cabinets.
The United States and China have published the first product lists from the U.S.-China Board of Trade, naming 77 lines of Chinese goods and 1,619 lines of American goods for possible tariff relief. Nothing takes effect yet: implementation depends on each side’s domestic legal processes, and the underlying truce runs only to January 10, 2027.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer hosts G20 trade ministers in Milwaukee from September 29 to October 1, with forced labor, the Most-Favored-Nation principle, food trade and excess capacity on the agenda. India’s Piyush Goyal attends as the bilateral trade deal nears completion at an 18% reciprocal tariff base.
Costco disclosed $184 million in IEEPA tariff refunds in its fiscal fourth quarter and said most of the money is going back into member prices. The disclosure is the clearest sign yet that the post-ruling refund wave is reaching shelf prices.
More than 200 importers, exporters and carriers have asked USTR to keep its Section 301 fees on China-linked vessels suspended past November 9. A lapse would add a per container charge to US import lanes just as first quarter 2027 buying is being priced.
The EU’s overhaul of its customs framework became law on September 21, 2026, creating an EU Customs Authority in Lille and making platforms the deemed importer for goods sold into the bloc. The next live deadline is an EU-wide handling fee on small parcels from November 1, layered on the EUR 3 flat duty already in force since July.
US Customs and Border Protection began voiding importer of record numbers with inaccurate Form 5106 data on September 18, and trade press reports thousands of cross-border shipments at risk. Here is who is exposed, what a voided number does to cargo, and how to get one reinstated.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the US-China Board of Trade has been operationalized after talks with Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York, with consumer goods and low-tech items from China first in line for tariff relief. Here is how the mechanism works, which tariff layers it can reach and what remains unresolved before the September 24 summit.