The Foreign Agricultural Service published a list of updated quantity trigger levels and applicable periods for products that may be subject to additional import duties under the safeguard provisions of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture.
Customs duty
A customs duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs duty rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight. U.S. customs duties are listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
The top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee has reintroduced a bill eliminating Chinese shippers' eligibility for de minimis, keeping the ban on China, and adding a requirement that remaining de minimis shipments include at a minimum: a description; an HTS code; a country of origin, shipper, importer; and a U.S. value. The new version also dropped language around sections 232 and 301 tariffs in the previous version.
The U.S. is trying to negotiate with Canada and Mexico on auto rules of origin details, rather than complying with a dispute settlement panel decision that originating supercore parts are considered 100% North American as you calculate the vehicle regional value content, according to the leader of the trade group that represents Detroit's Big Three automakers.
The Court of International Trade on June 14 granted importer Maple Leaf Marketing's bid to redesignate the U.S.'s counterclaim as a defense in a customs spat on the classification of boronized steel tubing. Dismissing Maple Leaf's bid to dismiss as moot, Judge Claire Kelly cited the court's Cyber Power Systems (USA) v. U.S. decision to find that nowhere in Congress' scheme on the classification of goods does the legislative body explicitly let the U.S. "assert a counterclaim challenging CBP's classification."
A bill that approves the Taiwan trade initiative, but says it cannot take effect until the administration submits an economic analysis of its effects and answers questions from Congress on implementation, passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on a 42-0 vote.
CBP created Harmonized System Update 2306 on June 6, containing 4,835 Automated Broker Interface records and 1,746 Harmonized Tariff Records. This update includes an extension, which went into effect June 1, to the suspension of Section 232 duties on steel imports and steel article imports from Ukraine as well as the adjustments required by the verification of the 2023 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, CBP said, in a June 7 CSMS message.
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.
Customs modernization legislation should not just offer new tools for CBP to stop unlawful trade is the argument from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a dozen other groups involved in importing and exporting. The groups have 18 asks, laid out in a detailed five-page paper they sent to the leaders of the committees that will shape the bill.
Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and 20 other members of the House of Representatives, mostly from the Midwest, asked U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to make the ethanol export market in Brazil a priority, because Brazil has both non-tariff barriers and tariffs on U.S. ethanol exports.
Hybrid hydraulic floor jacks are eligible for exclusion from Section 301 duties under Harmonized Tariff Schedule secondary subheading 9903.88.46, CBP headquarters ruled in a recently released ruling. CBP said that the ruling came in response to an application for further review from Costco regarding the applicability of Section 301 tariffs on its imported Arcan 3-ton Professional Grade Hybrid Service Jacks.