CBP has assessed about $59 billion in duties under the major trade remedies started during the Trump administration as of March 4, according to CBP's trade statistics page. That includes $47.8 billion in duties from the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, and $335 million in Section 301 tariffs on goods from the European Union. CBP also has assessed about $6.8 billion under the Section 232 tariffs on steel and $2 billion under tariffs on aluminum. The Section 201 trade remedies on washing machines, washing machine parts and solar cells account for $1.6 billion in assessed tariffs. CBP's statistics account for refunds provided to importers.
Clarification: Jeffrey Neely of Husch Blackwell is the lead attorney for J. Conrad and Metropolitan Staple in their respective lawsuits challenging Section 232 tariffs on “derivatives” (see 2003030048).
Commerce Department Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director Earl Comstock is leaving the department, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said March 2 in a news release. Comstock was reportedly heavily involved in the export restrictions on Huawei Technologies and the Section 232 investigations.
Rep. Jackie Walorski, an Indiana Republican who has homed in on Commerce Department oversight on Section 232 exclusions, wrote to the agency March 3 questioning the legality of expanding the enforcement action to steel and aluminum derivative articles. “A sudden announcement on a Friday evening is not befitting such a dramatic paradigm shift from tariffs only on raw materials to now include downstream products as well,” she wrote.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters March 3 that he still wants to advance legislation that would reform Section 232 -- and he suggested that a greater congressional role might be warranted for Section 301, as well. “I want to move 232 and a number of members of my Finance Committee have talked to me about doing it,” he said, immediately adding that the bill is not an attack on President Donald Trump. He said that while the president's use of tariffs has shown Congress the shortcomings of the laws that allowed national security tariffs on steel and massive tariffs on China, his interest is in reasserting some congressional prerogatives on trade.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 24 - March 1:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 24-28 in case they were missed.
The United Kingdom government emphasized that its National Health Service will not pay more for drugs as a result of a U.S.-United Kingdom free trade deal, and that Britain “will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.” The latter seems to be a reference to sanitary standards that frustrate U.S. exporters, such as a ban on anti-bacterial washes of chicken. The government issued its negotiating objectives and an analysis of the economic benefit to the U.K. of a free trade deal in the March 2 document.
Four more importers have now filed lawsuits challenging Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum “derivatives,” and one of them has already been successful in obtaining a court order blocking liquidation of their entries, if not collection of the tariffs. New Supplies and GJ Burkhart (dba Fry Fastening Systems) together filed a suit at the Court of International Trade Feb. 25. Represented by Brenda Jacobs, they told the court that the Justice Department had agreed to an order directing CBP to suspend liquidation until the case is eventually decided. CIT granted the motion and issued the order on Feb. 28.
President Donald Trump said that although it is a fact that there's only one titanium sponge producer in the U.S., and that's a threat to national security, he agrees with the Commerce secretary that measures aside from restricting imports are the best way to deal with the problem. Trump made the announcement Feb. 27. Imports accounted for 68% of U.S. consumption in 2018, the year that TIMET asked for a Section 232 investigation; nearly all come from Japanese suppliers.