Section 301 List Hearings Start July 24; Witness List Released for Two Days of Panels at ITC
Maritime and shipping container companies, a major trucking company and companies big and small whose livelihoods depend on Chinese imports will testify across a day and a half of hearings to help the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative determine which imports should be taxed to bring the list up to $50 billion in goods (see 1806210029). So far, $34 billion worth of imports are being taxed at 25 percent (see 1806150003). The USTR released a schedule of witnesses for the hearings, which will begin July 24 at 9:30 a.m. at the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington.
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Schneider National Carriers, which will be on a logistics and shipping panel on the second day, said 25 percent tariffs on 53-foot containers would increase costs to all businesses that move goods across the country from ship to train to truck, and would not benefit any domestic manufacturers. The company's written submission said that a 2015 International Trade Commission antidumping case on the containers found there is no domestic supplier "that is acceptable to the U.S. transportation industry." In addition to testimony from the groups that regularly testify about tariffs -- the National Foreign Trade Council, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, trade groups representing the chemical and high-tech industries -- the government will hear from three vaping companies. Products used in vaping, a nicotine-delivery system that avoids tobacco, are on the list.
Sage Chandler, Consumer Technology Association vice president-international trade, will be among several witnesses representing tech interests. Two companies, Universal Electronics and Logitech, will argue at the hearing for excluding from the tariffs list remote controls and other devices imported from China under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8543.70.99, their recent comments in the docket show. The “vast majority” of Universal’s remotes are manufactured in Chinese factories that Universal owns and operates, said CEO Paul Arling, who will testify at the hearing. Imposing the additional duties on those products “would cause disproportionate economic harm to U.S. interests, including small- or medium-size businesses and consumers,” by forcing higher subscription costs for pay-TV and over-the-top services, Arling said.
Another witness, Josh Kallmer, senior vice president-global policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, will testify for excluding several tariff lines on diodes and integrated circuits, he told USTR. Semiconductors are a “critical driver of U.S. economic competitiveness and technological leadership,” said David Isaacs, Semiconductor Industry Association vice president-government affairs, who will testify on the same panel as Kallmer. "Most U.S. semiconductor imports from China are semiconductors designed and manufactured in the U.S., and then shipped to China for the final stage of semiconductor fabrication,” he said. That phase is the “least value additive” step of production, “comprising as little as 10-15% percent of the value of the final product,” he said.