Two U.S. manufacturers filed a petition on March 27-28 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duties on glycine from India, South Korea and Thailand, and new countervailing duties on glycine from China, India and Thailand. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on glycine that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties.
Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) is a reference manual that provides duty rates for almost every item that exists. It is a system of classifying and taxing all goods imported into the United States. The HTS is based on the international Harmonized System, which is a global standard for naming and describing trade products, and consists of a hierarchical structure that assigns a specific code and rate to each type of merchandise for duty, quota, and statistical purposes. The HTS was made effective on January 1, 1989, replacing the former Tariff Schedules of the United States. It is maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, but the Customs and Border Protection of the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for interpreting and enforcing the HTS.
The International Trade Commission on March 23 issued Revision 2 to the 2018 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The main reason for the update was to implement new Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel products (see 1803230060). The ITC also made technical corrections and changes related to recently imposed Section 201 safeguard duties on solar cells and residential washers. The changes, most of which took effect March 23, are as follows:
The International Trade Commission on March 23 issued Revision 2 to the 2018 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Changes, many of which take immediate effect, include provisions required to implement Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel products that took effect March 23 (see 1803230014). The ITC said it is aware of some technical issues with the documents and is "working to resolve it as quickly as possible." International Trade Today will have more details on the changes in a subsequent issue.
CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
The World Customs Organization's Harmonized System Committee is working to prepare for the next harmonized tariff schedule coming in 2022, the WCO said in a March 16 news release. The HSC recently met in Brussels and adopted "four sets of amendments to the Explanatory Notes and approved 36 new Classification Opinions, and just one Classification Opinion was deleted," it said. Also, "as part of the work to prepare the Seventh Edition of the HS (HS 2022), 30 sets of amendments to the Nomenclature were adopted." The committee "took 275 classification decisions (251 of which related to pharmaceutical products (International Nonproprietary Names, INN))," WCO said.
The International Trade Commission recently issued further changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule meant to implement Section 201 safeguard duties on solar cells. Changes to 10-digit statistical suffixes in the tariff schedule allow for reporting of photovoltaic generators and solar modules comprising lead-acid batteries attached to solar cells. The modifications, approved by the interagency “484(f)” Committee for Statistical Annotation of Tariff Schedules, took effect March 1.
A coalition of domestic manufacturers filed a petition on Jan. 25 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission, requesting new antidumping and countervailing duties on laminated woven sacks from Vietnam. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on laminated woven sacks that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The group filing the petition is known as the Laminated Woven Sacks Fair Trade Coalition.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on rubber bands from China (A-570-069/C-570-070), Sri Lanka (A-542-802/C-542-803) and Thailand (A-549-835/C-549-836).
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on cast iron soil pipe from China (A-570-079/C-570-080). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017. The AD duty investigation covers entries July 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017.
The International Trade Commission recently released an updated version of the 2018 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, making several changes required to implement safeguard duties on large residential washers and solar cells (see 1801230052), it said. According to the ITC’s change record, “Revision 1.1” changes unit of quantity requirements for washing machines from “X” to “No.” and adds “W” for watts to the units of quantity for solar cells under subheading 8541.40.6030. New statistical note 9 to Chapter 85 clarifies that, “for statistical reporting purposes under subheading 8541.40.6030, importers should report the total watts at maximum power based on standard test conditions according to the latest revision of International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60904, ‘Photovoltaic Devices.’” Provisions for the safeguards are also added to Chapter 99, as detailed in the annex to the presidential proclamation setting the new tariffs (see 1802020012). The changes took effect Feb. 7.