Many importers who were hit with Section 301 tariffs six years ago expected they would be rolled back in 18 months or two or three years, said Nicole Bivens Collinson, director of Sandler Travis's international trade and government relations practice. Then, once that didn't happen, they thought they'd see what happened in the Biden administration.
A bipartisan effort has begun to undo Treasury rulemaking that allows automakers a longer period to move away from Chinese graphite and other critical minerals, and allows them to continue to use rollup methodology to calculate the percentage of qualifying critical minerals (see 2405030060).
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Senate appropriators that a proposed rule on connected vehicles should come out in the fall.
The exclusion from solar safeguard tariffs for bifacial solar panels -- originally meant to help utility-scale installations -- is about to end, the Biden administration announced May 16.
With the addition of 26 firms that source cotton from Xinijang, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act's Entity List now has 36 textile firms -- more than half of the list.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized President Joe Biden's decision to hike tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles under Section 301. Once the change is implemented, a Polestar or Volvo EV would be taxed at 102.5% rather than 27.5%. Rubio, in a letter sent May 14, said the tariff on cars with internal combustion engines must be equally high, because China exported 3.7 million ICE vehicles last year, compared with 1.2 million EVs.
Full details about the Section 301 exclusion process will be revealed next week, but a White House memo said that importers of machinery in chapters 84 and 85 will need to submit requests for exclusions, even though the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative already has compiled a list of HTS codes it sees as appropriate targets for exclusions. The memo said there will be a way to register opposition to those requests, as well. The memo said the USTR "shall prioritize, in particular, exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment."
The restriction that products that owe Section 301 tariffs will not be able to avoid Column 1 tariffs through the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill could greatly reduce how much money is saved by importers.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Adrian Smith, R-Mo., along with 17 Republicans on the committee, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., have introduced a Miscellaneous Tariff Bill to remove $1.3 million a day in tariffs on items not available from domestic producers.
Section 301 China tariff changes outlined by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative May 14 will take effect approximately 90 days after a request for comments that will be issued next week. That includes a 100% tariff on Chinese-origin electric vehicles, as well as the jump to 25% Section 301 tariffs on steel and aluminum products, ship to shore cranes, lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries, battery parts for non-lithium-ion batteries, "some critical minerals" and face masks, and a bump to 50% tariffs on solar cells, syringes and needles, the White House said in a fact sheet.