Harmonized Tariff Schedule

Two U.S. manufacturers seek the imposition of new antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum wire and cable from China, they said in a petition filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission Sept. 21. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CV duty orders and the assessment of AD and CV duties on importers.

Importers can still use the “U.S. Import Certification of Admissibility” for Mexican seafood products until 11:59 p.m. EDT Oct. 14, CBP said in a CSMS message. Starting Oct. 15, importers will be required to use Certifications of Admissibility from the National Marine Fisheries Service, CBP said. "Eligible entries from Mexico under the designated [Harmonized Tariff Schedule] codes must be accompanied by certification or the entire shipment will be denied entry," CBP said. The requirement stems from a court-ordered injunction against the importation of fish and shellfish caught in Mexican fisheries using gillnets (see 1807260039). The NMFS certification requirement applies to all imports from Mexico under more than 70 tariff subheadings covering various types of seafood because the applicable subheadings are so broad (see 1808270014).

A group of domestic manufacturers filed a petition on Sept. 18 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duties on mattresses from China. Commerce will now decide whether to begin an AD duty investigation. The investigation was requested by Corsicana Mattress Company, Elite Comfort Solutions, Future Foam Inc., FXI, Inc., Innocor, Inc., Kolcraft Enterprises Inc., Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC, and Tempur Sealy International, Inc.

With the “great news” that Element Electronics persuaded the Trump administration to remove liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and motherboards under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule 9013.80.90 and 8529.90.13 headings from the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs set to take effect Sept. 24 (see 1809170051), Element’s Winnsboro, South Carolina, LCD TV assembly factory “will remain open!,” it emailed retail customers Walmart and Target. “Thanks again for supporting Element -- the only major television brand assembling TVs in America.” Element had said in public hearings that it would be forced to shutter the factory and terminate the remaining 126 jobs there if tariffs on the components it sources from China went through because the prohibitively higher costs would have forced the company to import finished TVs from China rather than assemble them in Winnsboro.

China will impose new tariffs on oak wood veneer, non-electrical machines, makeup, copper and natural gas, which are all among the top-volume items in 3,571 U.S. imports that will be subject to 10 percent retaliatory tariffs at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 24. Another 1,636 tariff lines will be subject to an additional 5 percent tariff, with bleached wood pulp, cow hides, optical media and needles and catheters among the highest-volume goods. Together, the two lists accounted for about $60 billion in imports last year. China's tariffs come in response a newly released list of goods from China to face Section 301 tariffs in the U.S. starting Sept. 24 (see 1809170051).

CBP posted a new "reference guide" to the harmonized tariff schedule subheadings currently covered by the Section 301 25 percent tariffs. The guide simply lists the eight-digit subheadings included in the two lists. The first list of 818 subheadings took effect July 6 (see 1807050033) and the second list of 279 subheadings took effect Aug. 23 (see 1808160049).

The Trump administration should pursue a “plurilateral agreement among the world’s largest economies” to curb China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, commented IBM in docket USTR-2018-0026 in opposition to the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports. IBM thinks that a global agreement with China’s “largest trade and investment partners” could help “establish broad new norms,” it said.

CBP will accept voluntary ACE filings for shrimp and abalone under the Seafood Import Monitoring Program beginning in October, as the mandatory filing deadline for these species approaches at year’s end, it said in a CSMS message. As announced by the National Marine Fisheries Service in April, shrimp and abalone will become subject to the PGA message set filing requirements for high-risk seafood on Dec. 31 (see 1804230037).

WPC Technologies filed a petition Sept. 5 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission, asking for new antidumping duties on strontium chromate from Austria and France. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD duty investigations on strontium chromate from the two countries. The subject merchandise is used as a corrosion-resistant pigment in paints and coatings, particularly for the protection of steel and aluminum.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is set make changes to the process for requesting exclusions from Section 232 tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum products. The interim final rule creates procedures for rebutting objections to exclusion requests, clarifies the criteria BIS reviews when deciding whether to grant or deny requests, and provides for broader exclusion requests based on ranges or dimensions within the same Harmonized Tariff Schedule code.