Automakers and their trade groups cautioned the Bureau of Industry and Security to tailor its restrictions narrowly -- and allow a phase-in -- if they want manufacturers to stop buying information technology components from China for cars with advanced features, including electric cars.
Representatives from the domestic textiles industry testified at an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hearing May 2 regarding ways to promote supply chain resilience, especially after many were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2404290057).
Canadian Solar, which is ramping up a 5-gigawatt solar panel manufacturing factory in Texas, told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that tariff rate quotas on solar cells under the current safeguard action and Section 301 tariffs on machinery that helps make solar panels and cells are harming solar manufacturers. Canadian Solar also is working on opening a solar cell plant in Indiana, but it won't open until late 2025. It imports cells made in Thailand. The TRQ only allows five gigawatts' worth of tariff-free cells in annually.
In the first third of its first public hearing on promoting supply chain resilience, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and interagency officials heard from groups disputing the premise of the project -- that liberalizing trade was harmful to U.S. workers and manufacturing -- and from those who say the worker-centered trade approach of the Biden administration is not going far enough to restore American manufacturing.
Amid a four-year review of Section 301 tariffs that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will end soon (see 2404170074), Democratic senators led by Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called on President Joe Biden to maintain the tariffs on China. In a short May 2 letter, they said the country continues to disrupt global supply chains and distort markets across such sectors as steel, solar technology and electric vehicles.
An element of the Generalized System of Preferences benefits package that has passed the House Ways and Means Committee next month could result in some apparel items being added to the eligibility list for the first time, something sponsor Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., has pushed for since 2023.
A "snapshot" report just released by the Government Accountability Office reminded Congress that the GAO has studied -- and made recommendations -- on many aspects of how to manage economic competition with China, including providing more resources to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, improving information sharing with companies to keep more counterfeits out of U.S. commerce, and improving the tariff exclusions process for steel and aluminum imports.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's president told the U.S. trade representative that customs brokers and others in the trade community aren't "pro forced-labor, pro-pollution, pro-unsustainable environmental practices," but that too often, "‘race to the top’ objectives do not take into consideration the ability to actually implement the policies, and the costs associated with the goals."
The Aluminum Association cheered the Mexican decision to apply tariffs to 544 tariff lines in aluminum and aluminum products. The tariffs are as low as 5% or 10% on some products, but are 25% and 35% on most.
When a declaration is made on the Automated Commercial Environment portal, the system will automatically check for duplicate Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers, case numbers and manufacturer IDs before submission is permitted, CBP said. This was part of a series of updates CBP made to the ACE Portal that was highlighted in an April 25 CSMS message.