The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 1-7:
David Spooner, Washington counsel for the U.S. Fashion Industry Association, said that while the U.S. trade representative's China policy speech was underwhelming, he doesn't think the possibility of renewing 549 exclusions that expired at the end of last year will be the only olive branch to importers hurt by the China trade war. "Will we see other [expired] exclusions open to renewal? A new window open for exclusions? I hear 'yes.' When that will happen, and what that will look like, remains unclear," Spooner said at a virtual USFIA conference Nov. 9.
Watch and clock importers are required to include origin information about the components when subject to the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, CBP said in an Nov. 8 CSMS message. "In circumstances where the band or case component in watches or clocks are made in China, if the band or case component(s) are not substantially transformed and are subject to Section 301 duties, then all of the components need to be constructively separated into their component parts and each component separately valued and reported on separate entry summary lines," CBP said.
Tech companies and trade associations favor working more closely with U.S. trade partners to diversify information and communications technology (ICT) supply chains and make them more resilient to disruption and bottlenecks, several commented Nov. 4 in BIS-2021-0021. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security sought comment to help the secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security prepare a report to the White House on supply chain disruptions in the “critical sectors and subsectors” of the ICT “industrial base” by the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order (see 2109170029).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 25-31:
IRobot slashed operating income projections for the fiscal year ending Jan. 1 on concerns over higher supply chain costs, price increases and Section 301 tariffs, Chief Financial Officer Julie Zeiler said on an Oct. 28 earnings call. Q3 gross margin declined by 11 percentage points, with 60% of the decrease due to an unexpected $14 million in tariff costs and “supply chain headwinds.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative voiced support for the current CAFTA-DR rules of origin as the best way to support the textile industry in the Northern Triangle countries, following an Oct. 29 meeting with a domestic industry textiles group. Imports from Central American countries covered by the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement have been flat since the agreement came into effect 15 years ago and some have talked about loosening restrictive textile rules of origin to boost production there.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 18-24:
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 18-22 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Eleven of the 49 Democratic senators have told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that the inputs for manufacturing protective gowns and masks and finished masks and surgical gowns should not continue to receive exclusions to Section 301 duties. The previous administration decided that goods needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic should not face higher tariffs, but these senators, led by Ohio's Sen. Sherrod Brown and Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, argue that domestic manufacturers need the tariff barrier to be competitive.