A domestic steel manufacturer filed petitions on June 6 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duty investigations on collated steel staples from South Korea, China and Taiwan, and new countervailing duties on the same product from China. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on collated steel staples that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The petition was filed by Kyocera Senco Industrial Tools, Inc.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated June 6. The most recent ruling is dated June 4. The following headquarters rulings not involving carriers were "modified" on June 6, according to CBP:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted a notice on its website that extends the June 1 deadline to June 15 for goods in transit that will be subject to a Section 301 tariff increase (see 1905310070). Chinese imports subject to the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs that were on the water as of May 10 will stay at the 10 percent tariff rate through June 15. The previously announced HTS subheading, 9903.88.09, will continue to apply to those goods, USTR said.
The New Democrats caucus, which includes the most pro-free-trade members in the party in the House of Representatives, has released a lengthy list of things they want to see in exchange for their votes for the new NAFTA ratification.
Trade groups that represent steel-consuming industries say it's wrong to think that just because there haven't been massive job losses the tariffs aren't economically significant to their members.
CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1910 on June 3, containing 1,379 Automated Broker Interface records and 283 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, it said in a CSMS message. The update includes modifications related to USTR's extension of the Section 301 tariff increase from 10% to 25% to June 15 for ships that were already on the water as of May 10 (see 1905310070). It also includes changes related to the removal of India from eligibility for the Generalized System of Preferences program (see 1905310072). Modifications required by the verification of the 2019 HTS are included as well.
Tariffs on Mexican imports would have a profound impact on the U.S. TV business if the Trump administration were to make good on its threat to impose 25 percent duties by Oct. 1 (see 1905310044), suggests our analysis of International Trade Commission import data. ITC statistics show the monetary fallout from 25 percent duties on finished TVs imported from Mexico could possibly exceed that of the threatened 25 percent Section 301 List 4 tariffs on TVs from China, even though China ships many more TVs to the U.S. than Mexico does.
CBP has yet to update ACE to reflect the delayed deadline for the Section 301 tariff increase, the agency said in a May 31 CSMS message. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced on May 31 that the previously planned June 1 tariff increase for affected goods from China would instead go into effect on June 15 (see 1905310070). "Importers entering subject goods on or after June 1, 2019 which were exported before May 10, 2019, and would be affected by this change, should consider waiting to file the entry summary pursuant to the ten day entry summary filing period," the agency said. "This will allow importers to file the appropriate duty rate with the entry summary when CBP updates ACE."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is publishing its latest list of product exclusions from the first tranche of $34 billion in Section 301 tariffs on China (see 1905090067). This fifth list of exclusions includes one full tariff schedule subheading, as well as 88 subsets of tariff numbers in chapters 84, 85 and 90. The new exclusions take effect retroactively from July 6, 2018, when the $34 billion in tariffs originally entered into force, and will remain for one year following publication of USTR’s notice. USTR is creating Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9903.88.10 for the new set of exclusions.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a fifth list of product exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. Newly exempt from the tariffs is one 10-digit subheading, 8537.10.8000, in its entirety, as well as "88 specially prepared product descriptions." The exclusions cover 464 separate requests, according to the notice, which is scheduled for publication in the June 4 Federal Register. The product exclusions apply retroactively to July 6, 2018, the date the first set of tariffs took effect, and will remain in effect until one year after the notice is published.