International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
An aggressive timeline that aims to file a conference report by June 21 for the House and Senate China packages has lobbyists speculating that none of the proposals in the trade titles will be in the final bill because the two chambers are too far apart. The two chambers have relatively similar renewals of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and a big difference in their renewals of the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. Each chamber has proposals the other doesn't, such as directing the administration to reopen Section 301 exclusions (Senate only); changing antidumping and countervailing duty laws (House only); removing China's eligibility for de minimis benefits (House only); and renewing and expanding Trade Adjustment Assistance (House only).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will extend the exclusions from Section 301 China tariffs on goods used to treat COVID-19 for another six months, it said in a notice posted on the agency's website. The exclusions were set to expire May 31, but USTR said it will extend the 81 product exclusions to Nov. 30.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will extend the exclusions from Section 301 China tariffs on goods used to treat COVID-19 for another six months, it said in a notice posted on the agency's website. The exclusions were set to expire May 31 (see 2111100037), but USTR said it will extend the 81 product exclusions through Nov. 30.
As companies work to move assembly out of China so that the goods they export to the U.S. won't be hit with Section 301 tariffs, they have to grapple with the fact that CBP may still consider a good made in Mexico, Malaysia, Vietnam or elsewhere to be a product of China if enough of its innards were made in China.
Greta Peisch, general counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, said that the USTR will spell out in an upcoming Federal Register notice what opponents to Section 301 tariffs should address as they critique the effectiveness of the tariffs on the vast majority of imports from China, and what information the office would find useful as they undertake the review of the tariffs.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Although utilities that are installing wind and solar operations and wind turbine manufacturers would like antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws to change to take public interest into account, panelists at Georgetown Law's International Trade Update acknowledged it will probably never happen.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said he hopes to get "the essence of an agreement" on merging the House and Senate China bills by the end of this month. "I don't mean we're going to have everything agreed to." He said he hopes that each committee delegation can either settle or get very close to finishing their segments by then, though he said some issues will have to be passed up to leadership. "And then I'm hopeful we can get the Competes bill done by the end of next month. That I know is a very ambitious, perhaps naive expectation." He acknowledged there are "real differences" between the two versions.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 9-15: