During almost a year of 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel, U.S. purchases of Canadian steel declined by nearly 20 percent, according to Cicero Machado, a steel analyst with Wood Mackenzie. In the early weeks after the tariffs were lifted, there was not a jump in Canadian steel imports, according to Amy Magnus, whose customs brokerage in Vermont works with many importers bringing steel from Canada. Orders cannot be shipped quickly, she said.
The top Democrat and top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee agree that the volume of migrants coming from Central America is a problem, and that tariffs on Mexican goods aren't a great way to solve it. The two were speaking at a June 12 program at the Atlantic Council about the tariffs on Mexican imports that were averted last weekend.
A newer high resolution format is adding movies, even as apart from Amazon and Netflix it lacks wide distribution, the 8K Display Summit was told in New York Tuesday. The coming fourth tranche of tariffs on Chinese products will affect a wider array consumer tech than past versions, attendees also were told.
A newer high resolution format is adding movies, even as apart from Amazon and Netflix it lacks wide distribution, the 8K Display Summit was told in New York Tuesday. The coming fourth tranche of tariffs on Chinese products will affect a wider array consumer tech than past versions, attendees also were told.
The Trump administration’s threat to levy List 4 Section 301 tariffs of up to 25 percent on Chinese-made TVs and all other goods not previously dutied (see 1905140025) is “much broader, much deeper and much less likely to be resolved with a quick deal” than the Mexican import tariff threat, Bob O’Brien, president of Display Supply Chain Consultants, told the 8K Display Summit Tuesday. “I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better with respect to China.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 3-7 in case they were missed.
Tech industry reaction was sparse to President Donald Trump's Friday tweet lifting the threat of 5 percent tariffs on Mexican imports from taking effect Monday (see 1905310014). Trump had threatened to hike the tariffs incrementally each month to 25 percent by Oct. 1 if Mexico didn’t solve the influx of migrants through the southern U.S. border (see 1906060001).
Element Electronics, as it did successfully last year, again is floating the threat of job losses in South Carolina in a strategy to defeat the proposed List 4 Section 301 tariffs of up to 25 percent on the LCD panels and printed-circuit assemblies it imports from China. Element is “the sole U.S. mass assembler” of LCD TVs, and tariffs would destroy its competitiveness against companies that import finished TVs from Mexico, it commented in docket USTR-2019-0004 in requesting to appear at the List 4 public hearings that begin June 17.
Vice President Mike Pence said the meeting with Mexico's Foreign Minister June 5 was positive, but emphasized that the Mexican efforts to stem migration from Central America -- and its proposals for future action -- "are not nearly enough." Pence, who spoke to reporters before leaving on a trip to honor the D-Day anniversary, said, "We made clear to them that President [Donald] Trump is going to continue to stand firm until we bring this crisis of illegal immigration at our southern border to an end."
Universal Electronics Inc. CEO Paul Arling considered hypothetical solutions at a Tuesday investor conference in response to analyst questions on the company’s plans for manufacturing in light of the Trump administration’s plans to impose tariffs next week on goods brought in from Mexico. UEI was “a little surprised -- unpleasantly surprised” to hear of Donald Trump's plan for tariffs on goods imported from Mexico (see 1905310033) with the company in the midst of moving “a good percentage” of manufacturing from China to a facility in Monterrey, Mexico, Arling said. The company has historically produced goods such as remote controls in China, but it began last year shifting “nearly half of our units” out of China because “we do not wish to absorb a 25 percent increase; nor do our customers.” On how UEI plans to respond to Mexican imports, set to kick in at 5 percent Monday and rise incrementally to 25 percent in October, Arling said, “we’re going to play that by ear.” He referenced the company’s past efforts to find production locations “other than China,” listing the Philippines, where it has some operations, and Vietnam as options. It took six months to move from China to Mexico, Arling said. UEI looked at opening a factory in the U.S. “a few years back” but decided “you’d be so cost uncompetitive that you wouldn’t be able to compete -- you wouldn’t even be close on price,” Arling said.