President Donald Trump's chief spokesman from his first term said that half-baked orders from the White House -- like an order to end de minimis for Chinese goods that CBP was not ready to implement -- is in part a result of Trump's memories of his staff trying to slow-walk and stop his tariff ideas.
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Suspension of liquidation and countervailing duty cash deposit requirements take effect Feb. 10 for imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from Brazil (C-351-863), Canada (C-122-872), Mexico (C-201-864) and Vietnam (C-552-844), after the Commerce Department found countervailable subsidization in preliminary determinations in its ongoing CVD investigations.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP said it no longer will allow for retroactive treatment for products made in China and Hong Kong that came in after the administration's Feb. 5 executive order temporarily reinstating de minimis, according to a Federal Register notice. The order wasn't publicly announced until Feb. 7 (see 2502070052).
The Commerce Department is amending the original final results of its countervailing duty administrative review on certain new pneumatic off-the-road tires from India (C-533-870) to correct ministerial errors in the calculation of the duty rates for two mandatory respondents and companies not selected for individual review. The agency calculated new CVD cash deposit rates for the 29 companies under review, with slight changes to the original final calculations. These amended final results, effective Feb. 10, will be used to set final assessments of CVD on importers for entries during calendar year 2022.
Duty-free de minimis treatment is available for Chinese-origin goods again, but only until "notification by the Secretary of Commerce to the President that adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue for all Chinese products," the White House said in an amendment to its Feb. 1 executive order on China tariffs.
The reversal of an order banning Chinese products from de minimis startled importers and members of the Senate Finance Committee, who were puzzling about how long it would be until the policy flipped again, and why the Commerce Department, which has never had involvement in de minimis before, has been put in charge of deciding when to implement the order.
The abrupt change in how CBP will process low-value goods made in China because of President Donald Trump's executive order banning the de minimis exemption for these goods (see 2502030034) is causing some upheaval among shippers unfamiliar with the other types of customs processing, importers, brokers and logistics providers told International Trade Today.
China opened a dispute at the World Trade Organization on Feb. 5 to challenge the new 10% tariff imposed by the U.S. on all goods from China, claiming that the measure violates the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. China said that not only do the duties violate the U.S. government's "Schedule of Concessions and Commitments," they're also "discriminatory and protectionist in nature."