With President-elect Joe Biden said to be reluctant to commit to changing 25% tariffs on $250 million worth of imports from China, a recent Congressional Research Service report contains suggestions that could point to a possible off-ramp. The report, released Nov. 23, says that Section 301 actions terminate automatically after four years, unless the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative receives a request for continuation, and conducts a review that determines the tariffs should continue.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 16-22:
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 16-20 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Parties wishing to appear at a Dec. 29 online hearing on alleged Vietnamese currency manipulation must make a request to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative by Dec. 10, including a testimony summary. The Section 301 investigation will examine how the intervention in exchange rates in Vietnam burdens American commerce. After the hearing, rebuttals can be submitted until 11:59 p.m. Jan. 7, 2021.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Nov. 20. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:
Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden's choice for secretary of state, has said that the Section 301 tariffs on China and Section 232 tariffs on Europe “harm our own people,” according to coverage of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce talk he gave in September. “We would use tariffs when they’re needed, but backed by a strategy and a plan,” he added. Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said, “The EU is the largest market in the world. We need to improve our economic relations, and we need to bring to an end an artificial trade war that the Trump administration has started,” Reuters reported from the Chamber talk.
C.H. Robinson “identified potential savings for its customers of roughly $980 million related to exclusion refunds” since the first Section 301 tariffs were put in place in 2018, the company said in a recent news release. Some 96% of those are “product-specific which require a more complex, time-consuming analysis for qualification,” it said. “The U.S.-China trade war has added another layer of complexity to what has been a challenging global transportation market over the past year,” said Mike Short, president of global forwarding at C.H. Robinson. “As we have consulted with businesses of all sizes, it’s clear that the biggest barriers to duty recovery for these companies are a lack of time, data, and expertise to navigate the complex and lengthy application process.” The last of the exclusions expire Dec. 31.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Implementation of the USMCA isn't the level of change that's expected to add costs to Toyota, according to Leila Afas, director of international policy for Toyota North America. “We fortunately are in a very good position,” she said in response to a question from International Trade Today during a Nov. 19 webinar hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. She said Toyota sources a lot of its engines and transmissions in the U.S.
Complaint filings at the Court of International Trade seeking to have the Section 301 lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings vacated and the duties refunded (see 2009210025) slowed to a trickle in November, with fewer than 10 filed within the last two weeks. Of the roughly 3,700 complaints filed since Sept. 10, about 140 have been filed since Sept. 24. That’s the two-year anniversary date of List 3 taking effect and was within the statute of limitations that many lawyers cited under court rules to establish the timeliness of their actions. A plaintiff must file an action within two years “after the cause of action accrues,” court rules say. Lawyers in the subsequent actions will try to establish that the clock started when their importer clients first paid the tariffs.