CBP created Harmonized System Update 2520 on May 31, containing 11 Automated Broker Interface records and three Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. HSU 2520 includes the extension of Section 301 Exclusions 9903.88.69 and 9903.88.70 to Aug. 31 and a partner government agency update.
An importer is liable for duties on merchandise that it sought to import in 2019, despite arguing that it didn't consent to having its broker designate it as an importer of record, according to a recent CBP ruling.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Steel and aluminum and their derivatives will be subject to 50% tariffs, not 25% tariffs, President Donald Trump wrote in a proclamation. The changes take effect at 12:01 a.m. June 4.
President Donald Trump said that although the 25% tariffs on steel, and the recently hiked aluminum tariffs, have "helped provide critical price support" to domestic producers, the rates are not high enough to enable them "to develop and maintain the rates of capacity production utilization that are necessary for the industries' sustained health and for projected national defense needs." So those rates will increase to 50% at 12:01 a.m. EDT June 4.
The District Court for the District of Columbia on June 3 stayed its decision finding that the International Economic Emergency Powers Act doesn't confer tariff-setting authority and declaring that all tariff action taken under IEEPA is illegal. Judge Rudolph Contreras suspended his preliminary injunction on the collection of the tariffs from the plaintiffs, two small importers, as well as the "accompanying memorandum opinion," which said IEEPA doesn't provide for tariffs. The ruling is stayed pending the government's appeal of the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The judge said a stay is "appropriate to protect the President’s ability to identify and respond to threats to the U.S. economy and national security."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has extended by three months certain current exclusions to its Section 301 investigation related to U.S. trade with China.
President Donald Trump's announcement that he would double Section 232 tariffs on aluminum, alongside steel, to 50% -- when the vast majority of imported aluminum was duty-free until March 12 -- drew warnings from the largest aluminum trade group.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, on Fox Business News on June 1, described China as "slow rolling" its de-escalation agreement with the U.S., rather than being in violation of the deal, but said that "we are taking certain actions to show them what it feels like on the other side of the equation."
Importer FCMT filed a trio of complaints at the Court of International Trade last week challenging CBP's appraisement of its apparel entries. In all three cases, the importer argued that CBP failed to use the products' transaction value to appraise the merchandise and that CBP engaged in an "arbitrary and fictitious appraisement" of the merchandise (FCMT v. United States, CIT #s 21-00242, -00243, -00247).