CBP has provided guidance on tariff updates related to executive orders that set an exemption for goods from Canada and Mexico that qualify for USMCA..
The implementation of -- and seemingly abrupt reprieve from -- 10% to 25% duties on goods imported from Canada and Mexico is causing whiplash among customs brokers.
Given that more than half of imports from Canada and Mexico don't claim USMCA preferences, trade lawyers and customs experts are expecting a sharp and rapid increase in entries that claim the preference.
CBP created Harmonized System Update 2508 on March 3, containing 58 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 17 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. HSU 2508 includes the recent Canada, Mexico and China tariff updates as well as several PGA HTS flag updates: FDA tariff flags on eight HTS codes under heading 1207, from FD4 to FD3.
An exemption for USMCA-qualifying goods from 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico will also take effect March 7, alongside the USMCA exemption for Canada, according to an executive order signed today by President Donald Trump. Like the Canada order, it also lowers the tariff for potash that doesn’t qualify for the USMCA exemption to 10%.
An exemption for USMCA-qualifying goods from 10% and 25% tariffs on goods from Canada will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on March 7. An executive order signed by President Donald Trump exempts all goods “that are entered free of duty as a good of Canada under the terms of general note 11” of the tariff schedule from the tariffs, “including any treatment set forth in subchapter XXIII of chapter 98 and subchapter XXII of chapter 99.”
Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, criticized President Donald Trump's executive actions, predecessor Joe Biden's rulemaking and a past bill that moved through Ways and Means that aimed to curtail de minimis in various ways. She called them all "half-measures or simply playing Whac-A-Mole with specific countries."
Vehicles that meet the USMCA rules of origin will be able to enter the U.S. duty-free again, for one month, two White House spokespeople said March 5.
CBP is implementing a new Chapter 99 harmonized tariff schedule number to implement an increase in duties from 10% to 20% on imported products from China and Hong Kong that went into effect just after midnight on March 4 (see 2503030007).
A domestic producer recently filed a petition with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping and countervailing duties on certain chassis and subassemblies imported from Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. Commerce now will decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CVD orders and the assessment of AD and CVD on importers. The U.S. Chassis Manufacturers Coalition, which consists of the Cheetah Chassis Corporation and Stoughton Trailers, requested the investigation.