CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1914 on Aug. 13, containing 531 Automated Broker Interface records and 94 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, it said in a CSMS message. The update includes adjustments required by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's announcement of two new sets of exemptions from Section 301 tariffs on China (see 1907290023 and 1908080019). Modifications required by the verification of the 2019 HTS and to support Partner Government Agency message set functionality are included as well.
President Donald Trump said in an Aug. 23 tweet that he is planning an unspecified response to new tariffs that China will impose on U.S. goods. China's tariffs are in relation to the coming Section 301 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods, most of which will begin on Sept. 1. “Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing your companies HOME and making your products in the USA,” Trump tweeted. “We don’t need China” and the U.S. “would be far better off without them,” he said. “The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP.”
CBP on Aug. 22 issued new filing instructions for goods subject to Section 301 duties, in light of the 10 percent tariffs set to take effect on Sept. 1. The agency’s CSMS message contains updated information on how to enter goods with subheadings on the first group of fourth tranche products, on which Section 301 duties take effect at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Sept. 1 (see 1908150039). Beginning on Sept. 1, goods included in the first group of the list must be filed under subheading 9903.88.15. Then, effective Dec. 15, tariffs take effect on a second list of goods under subheading 9903.88.16.
The U.S. will on Oct. 1 raise its existing Section 301 tariffs on the first three lists of $250 billion in imports from China from 25 percent to 30 percent, said President Donald Trump in a series of tweets Aug. 23. The next set of tariffs set to take effect beginning Sept. 1 on $300 billion in imports from China will also be increased from 10 percent to 15 percent, Trump said.
Target remains “mindful of the volatility and uncertainty in the marketplace, including the timing and extent of additional China tariffs,” CEO Brian Cornell said on a Q2 earnings call Aug. 21. Noting that List 4 Section 301 tariffs at 10 percent are set to hit Sept. 1 on apparel, TVs, toys and home goods, Cornell said Target is following developments carefully: “We’re encouraged that many items originally slated for tariff increases in September have now been delayed until later in the year,” he said of the List 4B tariffs deferred until Dec. 15. As long as the trade situation with China “remains fluid,” he said, “it will present an additional layer of uncertainty and complexity as we plan our business.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted the transcript of the Aug. 19 hearing on the Section 301 investigation in response to France's digital services tax (see 1908200020).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking Office of Management and Budget approval to renew its exclusion request form for Section 301 tariffs, USTR said in a notice. The form was previously approved by OMB under an "emergency" review (see 1906170025) and is set to expire at the end of the year, USTR said. The burden estimate for the form was also revised, based on comments received in response to the emergency processing notice, the agency said.
CBP should be ready for when the next round of Section 301 tariffs take effect on Sept. 1, and multiple preparations are ongoing, CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said during the Aug. 21 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting in Buffalo, New York. While some products won't be tariffed until December (see 1908130018), "duties on a significant number of fourth tranche goods are still anticipated to go into effect Sept. 1, which is just a little over a week from now," he said. "CBP is prepared to implement this latest round of duties as it has been with all the other rounds." The agency has been working with "USTR to obtain a final list of the goods subject to tariffs, even though it started to change a little bit," will "make the necessary program changes to ACE" and "ensure trade stakeholders have all the information they need to file a proper entry."
TV imports to the U.S. turned sharply more China-centric in the weeks after the Trump administration announced its proposed List 4 Section 301 tariffs on finished sets from China among the roughly $300 billion worth of goods not previously dutied, an analysis of Census Bureau trade statistics found. Observers will debate whether importers’ rush to beat the threatened tariffs played a role in the steep influx of China-sourced TVs arriving in the U.S. during June.
France’s digital service tax (DST) is a radical departure from international norm, discriminates against U.S. companies and undermines efforts to reach global, multilateral consensus on the digital economy, tech companies and trade groups told U.S. officials on Aug. 19 (see 1908140023). Witnesses from Facebook, Google, Amazon, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Information Technology Industry Council testified before the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and officials from various federal agencies. Representatives from the departments of Commerce, State, Agriculture, Homeland Security and others questioned tech witnesses as part of the USTR’s Section 301 investigation of France’s DST (see 1907100076).