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.
CBP affirmed an earlier ruling that hand sanitizer dispensing stations manufactured in China should be classified for tariff purposes as “other furniture” instead of parts of mechanical appliances suited for projecting liquids, according to an agency decision rendered April 26.
Brazil, the largest exporter of semifinished steel to Mexico after the U.S., won't be subject to the melted and poured restriction the two countries recently announced, the Mexican government disclosed last week. Aluminum cast in Brazil and steel melted and poured there won't be subject to Section 232 tariffs if they are processed in Mexico and exported to the U.S.
The government of Mexico has asked the U.S. to exempt Mexican bifacial solar panels from a global safeguard tariff. Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro noted that USMCA, or T-MEC, as they call it in Mexico, has rules in this regard. The July 12 press release didn't spell it out, but safeguards are only to be applied to Mexico and Canada if their imports are integral to the injury to U.S. producers; the U.S. eventually reversed the solar panel safeguard on all Canadian panels (see 2207070041).
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register July 15 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
Although it's possible presidential candidate Donald Trump was just riffing when he proposed eliminating the federal income tax and replacing the revenue with tariffs, the White House Council of Economic Advisers is countering the idea with a white paper it issued July 12.
CBP created Harmonized System Update 2410 on July 11, containing 52 Automated Broker Interface (ABI) records and 15 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. The update includes the "latest Section 232 Mexico Aluminum and Steel updates and adjustments required by the verification of the 2024 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS)."
Canada's half-hearted attempts to comply with dairy tariff rate quotas and the refusal of the U.S. to comply with the auto rules of origin ruling are undermining the USMCA and could make its review more painful, panelists from Canada and Mexico said this week.
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are asking the Biden administration to open a Section 301 investigation on the discriminatory effects of Canada's recently enacted digital services tax. The administration earlier conducted investigations on other countries planning DSTs, but did not impose tariffs, as talks on a global taxation solution proceed.
An apparel factory owner and a trade policy professional from the apparel industry said it's critical to renew Haitian trade preferences this year, even though they don't expire for 14 months.