The chaotic situation that importers and customs brokers have been facing as tariff policy swings wildly from one extreme to the next is partially due to the fact that CBP is unable to influence policy in the Trump administration, Pete Mento, director of customs and international trade at DSV, said on May 8. Decisions about tariffs are made without expert insight into how their actual implementation will affect the broader trade community, he said.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will post all valid requests for new tariff subheadings to be added to the lists of derivatives subject to Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs after the conclusion of the two-week window to submit requests that began May 1, BIS said in an interim final rule published May 2 (see 2504300031). Once they are posted, BIS will accept comments for 14 days.
New tariff schedule subheadings may be added to the list of derivatives subject to Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs up to three times every year, with the first 60-day “inclusions” process beginning May 1, the Bureau of Industry and Security said in an interim final rule released April 30.
A Section 232 investigation on the national security threat posed by the import of medium- and heavy-duty trucks and their parts will collect comments for three weeks, through May 16.
The Commerce Department quietly launched an investigation into the national security threat of the import of trucks of gross weight of more than 10,000 pounds and components and systems for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, including engines and engine parts, transmissions and powertrain parts, as well as electrical components.
U.S. domestic lumber companies are delighted that President Donald Trump is considering imposing Section 232 tariffs on imports of lumber and its derivative products, but U.S. domestic manufactures expressed concern and foreign countries pleaded for exemptions in public comments to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Trade groups mostly reacted in alarm to the dramatic change in tariffs with every country that is coming this month, whether because of expected retaliation against their exports or, in the case of sectors that are largely supplied by imports, the increase in costs.
Members of Congress didn't split wholly along party lines in praising or panning the dramatic increase in global tariffs coming in the next week.
Lawmakers are drafting legislation to codify the authority that the Office of Information and Communication Technology and Services uses to place import restrictions on Chinese connected vehicles and other technologies, said Jeffrey Kessler, undersecretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has terminated the agency’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness along with 13 other advisory committees, the Commerce Department said on its website. Lutnick “determined that the purposes for which fourteen of the discretionary advisory committees were established have been fulfilled, and the committees have been terminated” effective Feb. 28.