Harmonized Tariff Schedule

The International Trade Commission recently issued Revision 11 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Changes include those required to implement new exemptions from absolute quotas on steel from Argentina, Brazil and South Korea, and aluminum from Argentina, imposed as part of those countries’ deals to escape Section 232 tariffs (see 1808300004). Those changes take effect Aug. 30. The updated HTS also includes amendments effective Sept. 1 to rules of origin under the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement. Finally, the recently revised subheading 9705.00.0085, which since July 1 has covered “zoological, botanical, mineralogical, anatomical, historical and paleontological pieces,” now refers more broadly to “other” collections or collectors’ pieces (i..e, other than numismatic, archaeological or ethnographic pieces). That change takes effect retroactively to July 1.

The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on steel wheels 12 to 1.6 inches in diameter from China (A-570-090/C-570-091). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2017, through Dec. 31, 2017. The AD duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2018, through June 30, 2018.

Though the vast majority of the nearly 3,000 comments in docket USTR-2018-0026 opposed a third tranche of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, Veeco Instruments supports the proposed duties on “indicator panels incorporating LCDs or LEDs” imported from China under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8531.20.00 subheading, the company said in Aug. 30 comments posted in the docket. Veeco also wants U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to impose duties on six more tariffs lines of LED-related goods not currently proposed in the third tranche, the company said in a document heavily redacted to hide “business confidential” information. The eight-page document also contained roughly two dozen redactions to hide Veeco's identity, except for one reference by name to Veeco that apparently slipped through. A revised document later posted in the docket deleted that one Veeco reference and replaced the previous document, which is now listed in the docket as "restricted to show metadata only because it contains confidential business information data." The publicly traded Veeco did about $485 million in 2017 revenue, mainly through the sales of semiconductor process equipment used to produce LEDs and other components, said the company’s most recent 10-K at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Imposing tariffs on LEDs and products containing them will “ensure that Chinese producers” positioned to manufacture those products “will not benefit from having unfettered access to the U.S. market,” Veeco said. The tariffs also “will encourage U.S. consumers to purchase such products from other sources that do not rely on stolen intellectual property to make these products,” it said. Luke Meisner, the Schagrin Associates lawyer who filed the comments on his client’s behalf, declined to comment.

Holiday-themed goods imported by Russ Berrie are largely not classifiable in heading 9505 as festive articles, the Court of International Trade said in an Aug. 30 decision. In a long-running classification challenge that took over a quarter-century to resolve, the court mostly sided with the government on the articles remaining in dispute, finding them classifiable as toys, lamps and footwear, with a single exception.

The White House on Aug. 29 issued proclamations expanding company-specific exclusions from Section 232 tariffs and quotas on steel and aluminum. The proclamations make exclusions from Section 232 tariffs retroactive to the date the exclusion request was "accepted," rather than the date of posting, by the Commerce Department. They also authorize Commerce to grant exclusions for products from countries constrained by Section 232 quotas on steel and aluminum (currently Argentina for steel and aluminum, and South Korea and Brazil just for steel).

Seafood importers should make certain that Chapter 98 exemptions for goods returned to the U.S. after being advanced in value are applicable when filing such claims to reduce exposure to Section 301 duties, a lawyer at a seafood company said during a recent interview with Seafood Source. Ian Moores, general counsel at seafood company F.W. Bryce in Massachusetts, said that the duty exceptions in Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9802.00.50 for goods returned after repair or alteration only apply to U.S. raw fish material processed in China. Additionally, CBP has ruled that headed and gutted raw material that is cut, frozen and packaged goes beyond "alteration," Moore said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recently said the Section 301 tariffs will only be applied to the operation performed in China, not the full value of the good, for imports under the Chapter 98 provisions (see 1808160049). Seafood is not currently subject to Section 301 tariffs, but is on the list of $200 billion of goods proposed for the third round of duties (see 1807100070).

CBP announced the calendar year 2018 tariff rate quota for tuna in airtight containers. It said 13,951,961 kilograms of tuna in airtight containers may be entered and withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during 2018, at the rate of 6% ad valorem under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 1604.14.22. Any such tuna that is entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the current calendar year in excess of this quota will be dutiable at the rate of 12.5% ad valorem under HTS subheading 1604.14.30.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is issuing in the Federal Register a notice detailing new Certification of Admissibility requirements for fish imported from Mexico under more than 70 Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings. The new requirement implements a court-ordered injunction against the importation of fish and shellfish caught in Mexican fisheries using gillnets (see 1807260039). Though CIT on Aug. 14 said the ban was effectively immediately (see 1808140013), certification requirements outlined in the NMFS notice take effect for imports beginning Aug. 24.

The Foreign Agricultural Service will charge a fee of $300 for the 2019 tariff-rate quota (TRQ) year for each license issued to a person or firm by the U.S. Department of Agriculture authorizing the importation of certain dairy articles that are subject to tariff-rate quotas set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, it said. The new fee is the same as last year's for 2018 TRQ licenses, which reflected a $50 increase from the 2017 license fee amount (see 1709120039).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture revised the appendices to its Dairy Tariff-Rate Import Quota Licensing Regulation for the 2018 tariff-rate quota year, in a final rule that takes effect Aug. 27. USDA is making the changes to reflect the cumulative annual transfers from Appendix 1 to Appendix 2 for certain dairy product import licenses permanently surrendered by licensees or revoked by the Foreign Agricultural Service.