Harmonized Tariff Schedule

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service released a notice Sept. 25 formally delaying its deadline for ACE filing of its “core” partner government agency (PGA) message set until January. “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, APHIS has decided to delay implementation until January 25, 2021. On that date, APHIS intends to begin applying [Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS)] flags, which will alert filers, who opt to submit data electronically, whether APHIS import data is or may be required. Importers or brokers using ACE must enter APHIS-required import data when they receive an APHIS-specific HTS flag in order to complete their entry in the system,” the notice said. APHIS had announced the delay by email in June (see 2006300062).

While some individual companies in the medical and protective equipment sector testified that advantaging U.S. production will prevent shortages in the next pandemic, trade groups generally emphasized that stockpiling is the best solution, and that production needs to be globalized for the lowest risk. All were testifying across two days this week to the International Trade Commission, which was tasked with investigating the U.S. production and trade in goods needed for COVID-19 pandemic response, and supply chain challenges revealed in the crisis.

The International Trade Commission issued Revision 22 to the 2020 Harmonized Schedule on Sept. 22, implementing extensions to exclusions from List 3 and List 4 Section 301 tariffs that had been set to expire Sept. 20 (see 2009170037). The extended exclusions are to be filed under new subheadings 9903.88.58 and 9903.88.59, respectively. The ITC also made changes to an already extended exclusion, as directed by USTR in a notice issued Sept. 16 (see 2009150051). The ITC also made technical corrections to a General Note 11 provision on USMCA regional value content for passenger vehicles and light trucks, as well as a Chapter 98 note on the third-country fabric provision for the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The International Trade Commission recently issued Revision 21 to the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. This latest revision implements a cut to Section 232 quotas on Brazilian semi-finished steel that took effect Aug. 28 (see 2008310010), and changes to the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement rules of origin that had been part of the proclamation implementing USMCA at the end of July (see 2006300079). It also reflects extensions to List 4 Section 301 exclusions that had been set to expire Sept. 1 (see 2008310013), now filed under new tariff subheading 9903.88.57.

More than 300 exclusions from lists 1 and 2 Section 301 China tariffs are set to expire Sept. 20, after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to extend them in the run-up to their expiration.

The Commerce Department had little success when it tried to reduce the number of Section 232 exclusion applications that were rejected for technical problems by launching an applications portal in 2019, a Government Accountability Office report, released Sept. 15, said. The GAO said that the rejection rate went from 18% to 16% with the new portal. Even though the portal has mandatory fields, in an effort to eliminate incomplete submissions, the rejections for reasons other than an incorrect Harmonized Tariff Schedule code went from 27% in Regulations.gov to 43% in the portal.

July smartphone imports to the U.S. were recorded as their highest monthly volume of 2020, but remain on pace to finish the year with nearly 20% fewer shipments compared with 2019, according to Census Bureau data accessed Sept. 13 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. July imports of PC monitors, a surprisingly strong connectivity tool throughout much of COVID-19's telework and remote-learning mandates, cooled off from their torrid performance in the second quarter.

July laptop and tablet unit imports to the U.S. continued their torrid growth from a year earlier, though July growth was flat sequentially from June, according to Census Bureau data accessed Sept. 6 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. Shortages of laptop liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and central processing units (CPUs) threaten to impede sales as the supply chain buckles under the weight of sustained consumer demand for notebook PCs as “essential” work-from-home and remote-learning connectivity tools, market leaders Hewlett-Packard and Dell said during earnings calls in August.

The International Trade Commission recently issued two revisions to the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule to implement changes to exclusions on tariffs from China, as well as modifications of Section 301 tariffs on the European Union and Section 232 tariffs on aluminum from Canada. In Revision 20, issued Aug. 31, the ITC implemented recent changes to Section 301 tariffs on the European Union that removed cheeses from Greece and sweet biscuits from the United Kingdom, while adding fruit jams and purees from France and Germany to the list of goods subject to tariffs (see 2008130031). New subheading 9903.89.55 is added to implement some of the changes. The ITC also implemented new and amended exclusions from list three Section 301 tariffs on products from China (see 2008210003).

Daimler Trucks North America is raising alarms on changes to the steel and aluminum purchases requirement, the ability to use accumulation for regional value content with non-originating parts, and the treatment of returned goods within the USMCA. The company also identified ambiguities with the labor value content rule, and errors and omissions in tariff classifications in Note 11 that cause problems for compliance.