Trade attorneys continue to wait and wonder what kind of tariff changes will come next year, with one observer using a tariff slide that said "Tariff Armageddon."
House Select Committee on China Chairman Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., proposes increasing tariffs on nearly all Chinese goods to at least 35% and raising tariffs on "strategic goods" to 100%, with exceptions only for goods that are currently sourced only from China.
Import quotas for polyester staple fiber under a safeguard announced Nov. 8 will start at zero in year one, then go to 453,592 in the second year, 907,185 in the third and 1,360,777 in the fourth and last year the safeguard is planned to be in effect, according to an annex to President Joe Biden's proclamation released Nov. 13 ahead of its publication in the Federal Register. The quotas and associated adjustments to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule take effect on Nov. 23 for imports of polyester staple fiber admitted temporarily free of duty under bond that are entered under subheading 9813.00.0520 (see 2411120039).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 4-10:
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.
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade said Nov. 8 that he’s “hopeful that there [are] some things we can do” on trade when Congress returns to Washington this month for its lame-duck session.
LIVONIA, Michigan -- The consuls general of Mexico and Canada in Detroit encouraged auto industry players to lobby the next administration, to let it know that tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods would be disruptive to the integrated auto industry, and to push for the administration to comply with a panel ruling on auto rules of origin.
President-elect Donald Trump's love of tariffs was the through line of his campaigns and his first administration, but a consultant and a think tank scholar say that how exactly he will hike duties next year -- on what products, from which countries and how high -- are unknowable.
The Court of International Trade rejected importer Retractable Technologies' bids for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction stopping the collection of Section 301 duties on its needles and syringes. However, in a decision made public Nov. 4, Judge Claire Kelly did stop liquidation of Retractable's entries during the course of the company's suit, which challenges the legality of a Section 301 rate hike on needles and syringes.
Watches that have case backs set with watch glass made of nonprecious materials -- such as synthetic sapphire -- are not considered to have cases made "wholly" of precious metal and are classified differently than watches that do, the Court of International Trade ruled Nov. 1. The holding came as a watch importer’s motion for judgment in a 2018 case wound up being denied, and the government’s was granted, by CIT Judge Jane Restani.