Harmonized Tariff Schedule

The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on cold-rolled steel flat products from Brazil (A-351-843), India (A-533-865), China (A-570-029), South Korea (A-580-881), and Russia (A-821-822), Japan (A-588-873), the Netherlands (A-821-812) and the United Kingdom (A-812-824), and countervailing duty investigations on cold-rolled steel flat products from Brazil (C-351-844), India (C-570-866), China (C-570-030), South Korea (C-570-882) and Russia (C-821-823)

CBP said its Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1505 was created Aug. 18, containing 2,229 ABI records and 304 harmonized tariff records. The update includes the addition of Partner Government Agency indicators for future Lacey Act submissions, said CBP (here). It also includes changes due to the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (see 1506290045). Adjustments required for the verification of the 2015 Harmonized Tariff Schedule are also included, CBP said in a CSMS message. The modified records can be retrieved electronically via the procedures indicated in the CATAIR. Further information: Jennifer Keeling, Jennifer.Keeling@dhs.gov.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is moving forward with its review of the Generalized System of Preferences and is ready to consider petitions to modify both the list of GSP-eligible products and the beneficiary status of GSP countries, it said (here). The agency will also begin to accept petitions for waivers on 2015 GSP competitive need limitations. The agency outlined the following new deadlines in its GSP review (petitions are due at 5:00 p.m. on each deadline):

The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on heavy walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from South Korea, Mexico and Turkey (A-580-880, A-201-847, A-489-824), and countervailing duty investigations on heavy walled pipe from Turkey (C-489-825)

CBP posted two Automated Commercial Environment guides for Partner Government Agency entry information requirements.The ACE PGA Message Set Summary (here) includes a summary of PGA filing requirements. The ACE Harmonized Tariff Schedule PGA Cross Reference Guide (here) outlines the HTS codes associated with PGA entry information requirements.

Members of the expanded Information Technology Agreement pact will initiate tariff phase-outs on covered products in 2016, and those tariffs will all drop to zero by 2019, the World Trade Organization said in a memo released on July 28 (here). The first cuts will take place no later than July 1, 2016, followed by staged cuts every six months. By Oct. 30, ITA parties must release a draft schedule for tariff phaseouts and a detailed list of harmonized tariff subheadings, said the WTO. ITA members are then required to complete a review process of each draft by early December. The tariff benefits are available to WTO members on a most favored nation status, meaning virtually all WTO members will be able to import the covered products duty-free. So far, roughly 50 of 80 ITA parties have formally agreed on the expanded list, the WTO said. The expansion covers about 200 products (see 1507280018).

The tariff phase-out schedule for products included in Information Technology Agreement expansion will be negotiated “this fall,” said a spokesman for the Canadian Trade Department on July 28. The eighty-one countries to the ITA pact finalized the terms of expansion in recent days (see 1507240020). Expansion aims to eliminate $1 trillion in global duties on high-tech goods (see 1507200026). The expansion list covers roughly 200 products across the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, ranging from adhesives to filtering machinery to electromagnets (here). The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn't respond for comment.

A group of U.S. manufacturers filed a petition on July 21 with the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duties on heavy-walled rectangular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from South Korea (A-580-880), Mexico (A-201-847) and Turkey (A-489-825), as well as countervailing duties on the same product from Turkey (C-489-826). Atlas Tube (a division of JMC Steel Group) Bull Moose Tube Company, EXLTUBE, Hannibal Industries, Inc., Independence Tube Corporation, Maruichi American Corporation, Searing Industries, Southland Tube, and Vest, Inc. say domestic manufacturers should be increasing profits, but that dumped and illegally subsidized imports have suppressed and depressed prices, causing domestic manufacturers to lose market share, sales and profits.

The Commerce Department issued a Federal Register notice on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigation on hydrofluorocarbon blends and components thereof from China (A-570-028) (here). The agency will determine whether imports of hydrofluorocarbons from China are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The period of investigation is Oct. 1, 2014, through March 31, 2015.

Products containing glass must be mostly made of other materials, or include mechanical components, to be classified as machinery under chapter 84, said the Court of International Trade in a July 10 decision (here). Although the note excluding articles of glass from classification in chapter 84 is silent as to what “of glass” means, CIT looked to the history of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System tariff schedule to find the international body intended it to mean products that are not “mainly of other materials.”