SVS Sound CEO Gary Yacoubian says his company was able to navigate COVID-19 supply-chain disruptions in China because “we built a lot of product in Q4 last year that was intended to be built in Q1 of this year.” SVS negotiated that with its Chinese factories, partly to mitigate the Section 301 List 4A tariffs, he said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will grant extensions to 12 exclusions from the first list of Section 301 tariffs on China that were due to expire July 9, it said in a notice. The 98 exclusions that weren't extended, all listed in U.S. Note 20(n) to subchapter III of chapter 99 and filed under subheading 9903.88.11, will expire July 9. The 12 extended exclusions will now expire Dec. 31, USTR said.
Some 100 exclusions from the first group of Section 301 tariffs will expire on July 9, after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative reached a decision not to extend them, USTR said in a notice. The exclusions, found in U.S. Note 20(n) to subchapter III of Chapter 99 of the tariff schedule and entered under subheading 9903.88.11, had been created by USTR in July 2019.
Rep. Rick Larsen, one of the chairpersons of the New Democrats' trade task force, told the Washington International Trade Association that he thinks the U.S. has not gotten any benefit out of the Trump administration's trade war. When asked by International Trade Today if a Joe Biden administration would roll back the Section 301 tariffs, even if China does not give concessions on industrial subsidies or state-owned enterprises, Larsen said, “I think the next administration needs to reset where we are, how we’re going to approach this.”
2020 outpaced even the active 2019 in terms of the frequency of Harmonized Tariff Schedule updates. Most of the updates implemented new Section 301 exclusions and changes and extensions for existing ones. Other major changes included new Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum "derivatives" and the withdrawal of Generalized System of Preferences benefits for many goods from Thailand In all, 13 revisions were issued prior to the mid-year Revision 14, as follows:
The International Trade Commission posted Revision 14 to the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The semiannual update to the HTS implements USMCA, which took effect July 1, and adds new tariff numbers for a variety of products, including diagnostic reagents and personal protective equipment. All changes take effect July 1, unless otherwise specified.
A group of 160 companies and trade groups is asking Congress to urge the administration to bring back temporary duty deferral, and to lift all Section 301 tariffs, or at the very least, improve the percentage of exclusion approvals and extend them for a year.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Importers continue to ask CBP what they should do about importing used cars that were built in Canada, the U.S. or Mexico, when they cannot know if those vehicles meet the new regional value content standards.
The International Trade Commission posted Revision 14 to the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The semiannual update to the HTS implements USMCA, which took effect July 1, and adds new tariff numbers for a variety of products, including diagnostic reagents and personal protective equipment. All changes take effect July 1, unless otherwise specified.