The International Trade Commission published notices in the Nov. 15 Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The Flag Manufacturers Association of America is petitioning lawmakers to support an effort to tariff imported U.S. flags at 300 percent and crack down on illegally labeled flags. In a recent letter, the group asked politicians to add a 300 percent tariff to HTS subheading 6307.90.9825 and force Amazon to monitor sellers of U.S. flags that lack country of origin labeling. Federal Trade Commission investigations into three "major importers that sell on Amazon" are also needed, the group said. Those importers -- G128, VSVO and Anley -- allegedly "break the law by not labeling product with Country of Origin & material content," the group said.
Chern-Chyi Chen, deputy representative for trade and economic affairs for Taiwan in Washington, said "witnessing a trade paradigm shift" has been very interesting. Taiwan, the 11th-largest trading partner with the U.S., is accelerating its investment outside of China as the U.S.-China trade conflict builds, according to Rupert Hammond-Chambers, the president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council. The two were guests at a Heritage Foundation event on U.S. trade with Taiwan on Nov. 13. The event was timed to a new report on Taiwan from Heritage researcher Riley Walters.
The International Trade Commission issued Revision 14 to the 2018 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, implementing the removal of Generalized System of Preferences benefits for a lengthy list of products from certain countries as a result of the 2017-18 GSP review (see 1810300031). Changes include the replacement of special program indicator “A” with “A*” -- indicating GSP eligibility only when imported from certain countries -- for subheadings that are now GSP-ineligible when imported from countries that exceeded annual import limits. These ineligible country-product pairs are added to the burgeoning General Note 4(d) of the tariff schedule, which is now over twice as long as it was in previous years’ tariff schedules.
Two U.S. manufacturers on Oct. 26 withdrew their request for Section 201 safeguard duties on bicycles, just one week after the petition was filed (see 1810230048). The document from Bicycle Corporation of America and Detroit Bikes notifying the International Trade Commission of the withdrawal provided no reason for the move, but Kelsey Rule, the attorney representing the companies, said it was “the result of a confidential settlement agreement between private parties.” The ITC had on the previous day sent a letter identifying deficiencies in the petition and requiring that they be corrected by Oct. 31 for the petition to receive consideration. Those omissions included concrete data on injury, including idling of production facilities, declining profitability or unemployment, as well as import data for the past five years. The petition had said import data on the bicycles included under the petition -- those valued under $400 -- was unreliable because many imports are entered under Section 321 and don’t show up in statistics. It also said the injury to U.S. industry had occurred in the mid-1990s when U.S. manufacturers were pushed out by low-priced imports.
Arris emphasized “serious concerns” in meetings with aides to Federal Communications Commission Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel about “harmful effects” the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs will have on “U.S. 5G leadership" and broadband deployment, it said in a filing posted Oct. 23. The 10 percent tariffs took effect Sept. 24 on “core broadband infrastructure and networking equipment and other critical inputs for wireless and wireline connectivity, as well as consumer broadband equipment,” and “automatically increase” to 25 percent Jan. 1, Arris said. “At just the 10 percent level,” Arris estimates the fees will impose $200 million a year “in additional costs on its equipment and devices.” The levies already have had “serious business implications,” noting that an analyst downgraded Arris stock because of the higher expected tariff-related costs, the filing said. The tariffs “risk slowing deployment of 5G and broadband more generally, diverting resources away from 5G and other broadband research and development efforts,” it said. Arris also noted in the meeting the need for an “exclusion process” for the third tranche of duties to give affected companies “additional time to make adjustments to their operations and mitigate the harms.”
The International Trade Commission posted Revision 13 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, adding provisions in Chapter 99 to implement tariff exemptions under the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill. All previously included notes to Subchapter II to Chapter 99 are eliminated. New tariff subheadings 9902.01.01 through 9902.18.01 are added, covering the goods that received duty exemptions in the latest MTB (see 1809140004). All of these changes took effect along with the MTB on Oct. 13. The tariff exemptions are in effect until the end of 2020. Though MTB grants exemptions from general duty rates, Section 301 and other additional duties still apply (see 1810150051).
Vessels coming from the Iraq must take additional security measures before entering the U.S. due to "deficient port anti-terrorism measures," the Coast Guard said in a notice. The U.S. notified the country last year of the issues, but the Coast Guard subsequently found "that Iraq failed to maintain effective anti-terrorism measures with the exceptions of three port facilities," it said. As a result, vessels "that visited a port in the Republic of Iraq in its last five port calls" other than those three acceptable ports are required to meet additional conditions for entry, it said. Additional countries that lack effective anti-terrorism measures and are subject to the security conditions are: Cambodia, Cameroon, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, the Republic of the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Micronesia, Nauru, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Syria, Timor-Leste, Venezuela and Yemen.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the Deseret milkvetch (Astragalus desereticus), a plant found in Utah, from the Endangered and Threatened Plants List, it said in a final rule. "Based on the best available scientific and commercial data, threats to Deseret milkvetch identified at the time of listing are not as significant as originally anticipated and are being adequately managed, the species’ population is much greater than was known at the time of listing, and threats to this species have been sufficiently minimized such that it no longer meets the definition of an endangered species or threatened species," FWS said. The delisting takes effect Nov. 19.
The International Trade Commission is seeking testimony and submissions for its analysis of how the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will affect industry, consumers and the economy as a whole. The ITC is charged with producing such a report for Congress to use as it decides whether to ratify any new trade agreement. It must do so within 105 days of the president entering into the agreement.