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.
Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee mostly stood by President Donald Trump's dramatic tariff moves, though many emphasized that the result should be lower non-tariff barriers for U.S. agricultural exports, not a permanent tariff wall around the U.S. economy.
Momentum is building for a bill that would prevent President Donald Trump from imposing tariffs on lumber, semiconductors or medicines without congressional approval -- if the bill could overcome a presidential veto before those tariffs are imposed.
A recent rise in tariffs, export controls and other trade actions will lead to rising prices in semiconductor supply chains, said Sree Ramaswamy, former senior adviser to former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
The U.S. will impose additional 10% tariffs on most imports, but not on Mexican and Canadian goods, information goods like books, music or films, or any goods either subject to Section 232 tariffs or among goods that Trump is considering protecting under Section 232, including pharmaceuticals, copper, lumber, semiconductors, certain critical minerals, and energy and energy products.
Customs attorney Dan Ujczo, speaking to an audience of automotive industry compliance officials hosted by the Automotive Industry Action Group, cautioned that if the listeners' companies are exporting auto parts from Mexico or Canada, they shouldn't assume that they have until May 3 before 25% tariffs are going to bite. (This is assuming the parts currently qualify for USMCA and therefore are avoiding the 25% tariffs imposed on exports from those countries under the guise of a national emergency on fentanyl smuggling and migration.)
The International Trade Commission published notices in the March 26 Federal Register on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The International Trade Commission is beginning a Section 337 investigation on foreign-fabricated semiconductor devices (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1443) after receiving allegations filed by Longitude Licensing and Marlin Semiconductor Limited that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Apple, Broadcom, Lenovo, OnePlus, Motorola Mobile Communication Technology Ltd., Motorola (Wuhan) Mobility Technologies, Communication Company Limited and Qualcomm are importing products that infringe its patents, the agency said in a March 26 notice.
As the U.S., Mexico and Canada are poised to renegotiate the free trade agreement known as USMCA among the three countries, expect the U.S. to review the rules of origin and "tighten them" in favor of requiring a higher percentage of North American content, trade attorneys with Miller and Chevalier said on a March 25 webinar sponsored by public accounting firm Forvis Mazars.
The International Trade Commission seeks comments by March 27 on a Section 337 complaint alleging that imports of electrical cables infringe patents held by Credo Semiconductor Inc., it said in a March 19 notice. According to the complaint, Credo is seeking a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against Amphenol, Molex, TE Connectivity and Volex to bar from entry "certain active electrical cables and components thereof" that violate the complainant's patents. The complainant said that the cables "are used primarily in data centers for enabling high-speed data transmission, for example, in server-to-server and other data distribution applications."