Goods from Mexico that aren't subject to Section 232 tariffs will continue to be excluded from tariffs if they can meet USMCA rules of origin, as will auto parts, President Donald Trump announced about 12 hours ahead of the deadline. For goods outside the Section 232 action, and not eligible for the free-trade agreement benefit, Trump had said the rate would go from 25% to 30%.
The White House is leaving most countries that buy more U.S. exports than they sell to the U.S. at a 10% tariff, and is increasing tariffs from 10% to somewhere between 15% and 41% for countries that have trade deficits with the U.S., with a notable exception -- Nicaragua, which will remain at 10%.
The ability to import low-value packages duty-free will end for goods from around the world on Aug. 29, the president declared in an executive order July 30.
An entry of gold jewelry from Oman qualifies for duty-free treatment under the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, importer Empire Jewelry argued in a July 28 complaint to the Court of International Trade. The importer noted that CBP doesn't disagree as to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading that applies to the case, subheading 7113.19.5090, but rather whether the jewelry originates in Oman under the terms of the FTA (Empire Jewelry v. United States, CIT # 24-00127).
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Importers Global Plastics and Marco Polo International agreed to pay $6.8 million to settle claims that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly failing to pay customs duties on plastic resin from China, DOJ announced. The U.S. said Global Plastics and Marco Polo, both subsidiaries of MGI International, received credit for "cooperating with the government."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said "all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generics, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials" from EU countries will be duty-free in the U.S. as part of a trade deal between the two sides.
Former trade lawyer Scott Lincicome, who now leads the libertarian Cato Institute's trade division, said the administration learned the natural consequences of Section 301 tariffs when Chinese goods flow to India, Mexico and Vietnam as inputs to manufactured goods that are created in those countries.
CBP upheld its June 2024 ruling that the customer who buys the medication at retail -- not the retail pharmacy -- is the ultimate purchaser, and as a result, retail pharmacies must list the medicine's country of origin on the prescription label. This is the case even if the FDA's Drug Supply Chain Security Act doesn't require country of origin on the prescription label, according to CBP.
A domestic producer recently filed a petition with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting antidumping and countervailing duties be imposed on freight rail couplers imported from the Czech Republic and India. Commerce now will decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CVD orders and the assessment of AD and CVD on importers. The Coalition of Freight Coupler Producers, composed of McConway & Torley LLC and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, requested the investigation.