The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative ought not to announce 10% tariffs on Canadian aluminum at the end of this week, just before the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement goes into force, Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., told International Trade Today in an interview. The administration has not announced its intentions, but several outlets quoted unnamed sources saying the tariffs are coming if Canada doesn't agree to voluntary restrictions on its exports.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 15-21:

Amid rising U.S.-China technology competition, Congress will continue to push for increased restrictions on inbound Chinese investment, said Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill. LaHood also said the Trump administration -- which has experienced success using tariffs and export controls to gain ground in trade negotiations -- will likely continue to leverage those measures, particularly against China.

Importers may want to delay filing for U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement reconciliation because the USMCA currently doesn't allow for post-entry refunds of merchandise processing fees, CBP officials said during a National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones webinar on June 16. Maya Kamar, CBP director for textiles and trade agreements, said that although the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is working with Congress for a legislative fix to the issue, CBP doesn't yet have clarity on whether such a bill will pass (see 2006050034).

Importers may want to delay filing for U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement reconciliation because the USMCA currently doesn't allow for post-entry refunds of merchandise processing fees, CBP officials said during a National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones webinar on June 16. Maya Kamar, CBP director for textiles and trade agreements, said that although the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is working with Congress for a legislative fix to the issue, CBP doesn't yet have clarity on whether such a bill will pass (see 2006050034).

The complexity of the auto rules of origin in both NAFTA and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are the result of what one observer calls the "political preoccupation" with retaining domestic auto manufacturing. Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, noted that in NAFTA, that resulted in the tracing list, and in USMCA, that resulted in the labor value content and higher North American value targets, including for specific parts.

Politicians whose constituents work at electrical steel mills hailed the news that electrical steel cores and laminations used to make transformers, as well as transformers and transformer regulators, are going to be subject to a Section 232 investigation (see 2005040059). Three of the four senators from Pennsylvania and Ohio, and a Pennsylvania congressman, lauded the administration for considering further protection for AK Steel, which was acquired by Cleveland-Cliffs in March. Once imported electrical steel was subject to 25% tariffs, AK Steel said imports of downstream products made from this kind of steel increased.

Increased CBP scrutiny on valuation, changes in tariff classification, and country of origin for products targeted in the U.S.-China trade war means companies need to be extra careful when doing tariff engineering or shifts in assembly locations, Sandler Travis lawyer Paula Connelly said, speaking on an April 28 webinar offered by the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade. Most of her presentation focused on establishing country of origin.

Three U.S. manufacturers seek the imposition of new antidumping duties on prestressed concrete steel wire strand from Argentina, Egypt, Colombia, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Ukraine, and new countervailing duties on PC strand from Turkey, they said in a petition filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission April 15. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CV duty orders and the assessment of AD and CV duties on importers.

Eighteen Republicans and seven Democrats in the House of Representatives are asking for Section 232 tariffs to apply to lamination and cores of electric steel, saying an increase in imports of those kinds from Mexico and Canada are a sign of “blatant circumvention” of the 25% tariffs on electrical steel, as they say neither Canada nor Mexico produces electrical steel. The April 15 letter, sent to President Donald Trump, was led by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio. AK Steel, which makes electrical steel in Pennsylvania and finishes it in Ohio, has threatened to close those plants because of the competition (see 2003090038). Balderson and Kelly wrote the president on the same issue in early March. Three of the four senators representing those two states asked for these items to be included in March 2018 (see 1803090038).