International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 13-17 in case they were missed.
Tariffs on French champagne, cheeses, handbags and other products (see 2001060040) will not be coming, several news outlets are reporting, since France has agreed not to impose a Digital Services Tax in 2020 as negotiations continue at the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development on a fair way to impose income taxes on companies such as Google and Amazon.
The phase one “economic and trade agreement” the U.S. and China signed Jan. 15 will take effect in 30 days and can be terminated by either country with 60 days' written notice, the deal's text said. Phase one is “a big step toward normalizing our trading relationship with China,” the Consumer Technology Association said, but “market uncertainty remains until we see permanent tariff removal.” The National Retail Federation also welcomed phase one but said phase two “can’t come soon enough.”
Whether the flow of counterfeit goods shipped from China will abate as a result of the phase one U.S.-China trade agreement is yet to be seen, but Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said the “language was pretty detailed and complete.” Allen, who was responding to a question from International Trade Today during a Jan. 16 conference call, said this represents “a huge shift in the official Chinese attitude. We should be appreciative of the Chinese government commitment here to better police that [counterfeit problem] internally and at their own border.”
A coalition of U.S. manufacturers seeks the imposition of new antidumping and countervailing duties on vertical shaft engines between 225 cc and 999 cc, and parts thereof, from China, it said in a petition filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission Jan. 15. 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 Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany, India and Italy (A-428-847, A-533-893, A-475-840), as well as its new countervailing duty investigations on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany, India, Italy and China (C-475-848, C-533-894, C-475-841, C-570-116).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 6-12:
CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 2001 on Jan. 13, containing 10,121 Automated Broker Interface records and 2,123 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, it said in a CSMS message. The update includes recently announced exclusions to the Section 301 tariffs (see 2001020035). Other changes were needed under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the trade agreement with Japan (see 1912270025).
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 6-10 in case they were missed.
Nearly seven in every 10 TV sets imported to the U.S. in November originated in Mexico, according to new Census Bureau import data accessed on Jan. 10 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. November was the third full month that 15 percent List 4A Section 301 tariffs were in force on finished TV sets from China, causing profound shifts in TV-sourcing trends. The U.S. imported 3.66 million TVs from all countries in November, a 22.3 percent decline sequentially and down 40.8 percent from November 2018, DataWeb said. Unit imports for 2019's 11 months declined 4.5 percent year on year to 37.43 million sets.