The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will grant extensions to 16 exclusions from the first list of Section 301 tariffs on China that were due to expire June 4, it said in a pre-publication copy of a notice posted to its website. The exclusions that weren't extended will expire June 4.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP added on May 21 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the fourth tranche of Section 301 tariffs, it said in a CSMS message. The official Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice for the exclusions was published on May 8 (see 2005110027). The exclusions are in subheading 9903.88.47. The exclusions are available for any product that meets the description in the Annex to USTR’s notice, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 1, 2019, and will remain in effect until Sept. 1, 2020. The CSMS message also includes a summary of Section 301 duties that shows information on each tranche of tariffs and granted product exclusions.
A U.S. manufacturer seeks the imposition of new antidumping duties on walk-behind lawn mowers from China and Vietnam, as well as countervailing duties on walk-behind lawn mowers from China, it said in petitions filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission May 26. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CV duty orders and the assessment of AD and CV duties on importers.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is removing two previously approved exclusions from the fourth list of Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, it said in a notice. The deletions “correct technical errors in previously announced exclusions,” it said. The agency is deleting exclusions for “Tumblers or disposable graduated liners for pitchers, of plastics, of a kind used in healthcare facilities (described in statistical reporting number 3924.10.4000)” and “Manually operated pill or tablet crushers of plastics, presented with attachable pouches of plastics for capturing and storing the resulting powders (described in statistical reporting number 8479.82.0080),” it said. The action is effective for “goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption” as of Sept. 1, 2019.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” in a statement May 27 to Congress that Hong Kong no longer warrants the same treatment under U.S. laws as it did before the handover to China in 1997.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is creating a new online portal for comments on the Section 301 retaliatory tariffs imposed on products of the European Union in connection with the World Trade Organization dispute on Airbus subsidies, it said in a notice. USTR is required to revise the tariffs every 180 days “unless certain conditions are met,” and received nearly 26,000 comments prior to its last round of revisions. USTR’s notice seeks emergency clearance from the Office of Management and Budget to create the portal. The next round of revisions is due Aug. 12, and USTR anticipates that it would begin accepting comments via the new portal on June 23, it said.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated on May 22. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 18-22 in case they were missed.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued some new product exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on the third list of products from China, according to a pre-publication copy of a notice posted to the agency’s website May 21 (see 2005220014). The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 24, 2018, the date the tariffs on the third list took effect, and will remain in effect until Aug. 7, 2020. New Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. subheading 9903.88.48 will be used for these products.