The International Trade Commission on July 1 posted Revision 8 to the 2019 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The semiannual update to the HTS implements the fourth and final round of tariff cuts under the expanded World Trade Organization Information Technology Agreement. It also extensively reorganizes 10-digit tariff subheadings covering aluminum products, and adds tariff provisions for aerial work platform trucks, frozen berry mixes, diamond grinding wheels, storage lockers and certain electric motorcycles.
The rapid changes in trade policy have elevated the need for adroit trade compliance management at international companies that hadn't previously been so concerned with customs duties, said two compliance professionals who spoke at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Annual Conference in Washington on June 28. "It's been an overall breaking down walls of communication" among the various groups at the company who "historically" didn't interact very often, said Antoinette Montoya, corporate export-import compliance manager at Bechtel Corporation. Now, though, "we've had a lot of really good strategic relationships built out of this," she said. Whatever happens with subsequent administrations, those relationships will "really help us in the long run," Montoya said.
CBP Grants Classification Change Requested by Domestic Steel Company, Says Section 232 Tariffs Apply
CBP agreed with Steel of West Virginia that the agency previously misclassified steel special profiles in a subheading not subject to the Section 232 tariffs on steel, the agency said in a notice. The company petitioned CBP as a domestic interested party to revise its classification ruling (see 1904020048). CBP received 14 comments on the petition.
CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings is facing a massive increase in ruling requests involving products from China, in addition to its need to weigh in on exclusion requests, CBP Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith said June 28 at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Annual Conference in Washington. The trade remedy exclusion requests are reviewed by OR&R "because of the tariff classification inherent in the application and then in the final determination," she said. Exclusion requests for the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum are now at about 80,000, well above the 10,000 that were expected when first announced, she said. That's not counting the exclusion request processes now available for the first three tranches of Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, she said.
CBP has assessed about $27.8 billion in duties under the major trade remedies started during the Trump administration as of June 19, according to CBP's trade statistics page. That includes $19.3 billion in duties from the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. The first tranche of Section 301 tariffs took effect on July 6, 2018 (see 1807050033); the second took effect on Aug. 23, 2018 (see 1808070046); and the third, on Sept. 24, 2018 (see 1809240015). CBP also has assessed about $5.8 billion under the Section 232 tariffs on steel and $1.8 billion under tariffs on aluminum. The Section 201 trade remedies on washing machines and solar cells (see 1801230052), imposed Jan. 23, 2018, account for $857.7 million in assessed tariffs.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer said he thinks the House could be able to have a vote in the fall on the new NAFTA. Blumenauer, from Oregon and one of nine House Democrats who are tasked with negotiating changes to the deal with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, said he expects the group will meet with USTR "at least once a week." Speaking at a Washington International Trade Association event June 26, he joked that Lighthizer spends so much time meeting with House members and caucuses, "I think he travels the world just to get away from us." Lighthizer is on his way to Osaka, Japan, for the G-20 meeting. He met with the working group the afternoon before he left.
Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., introduced a bill, the Reclaiming Congressional Trade Authority Act of 2019, that would require that any tariffs implemented on national security grounds -- whether through Section 232 or another mechanism, such as the national emergency on immigration -- be approved by Congress. The bill, introduced June 25, would allow tariffs to be in place for 120 days without congressional approval. It has a Senate companion bill, S. 899, introduced by Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.
The Supreme Court on June 24 denied a petition from the American Institute for International Steel to hear the trade group’s challenge of the constitutionality of Section 232 tariffs on iron and steel products. AIIS and two steel importers had filed the Supreme Court challenge directly after the Court of International Trade found itself bound by precedent to rule in favor of the government (see 1904160027), despite some concerns that the president’s Section 232 authority may be overly broad (see 1903250032). The overall challenge will continue under an appeal filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, said AIIS lawyer and George Washington University law professor Alan Morrison.
During a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued that "Canada is a stable and reliable source of uranium for American civil nuclear reactors," he told reporters at a press conference at the end of the day June 20. Trudeau was referring to an underlying argument made by domestic uranium mining companies that is now the basis of a Section 232 investigation (see 1807180029). The petitioners are asking that government agencies that source uranium be required to buy from American mines, and that 25 percent of the market be reserved for American producers. They say that only 5 percent of uranium -- which is primarily needed for nuclear power plants -- is coming from U.S. mines.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 10-14 in case they were missed.