President Donald Trump posted on social media that Vietnamese goods would face a 20% tariff, rather than an originally proposed 46% reciprocal tariff, in exchange for zero tariffs on U.S. exports.
Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., and four other House Democrats wrote to the president with questions about possible tariff rate quotas for Mexican steel, after reading reports that the U.S. might agree to drop 50% tariffs on Mexican steel in a TRQ arrangement.
CBP created Harmonized System Update 2525 on June 28 and HSU 2526 on June 30. HSU 2525 contains nine Automated Broker Interface records and three Harmonized Tariff Schedule records. HSU 2526 contains 131 ABI records and 32 HTS records.
In the June 25 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 26), CBP published proposals to revoke ruling letters concerning the tariff classification of certain dimmers and certain styles of men's footwear.
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 Senate passed the Trump tax bill with a tie-breaking vote from the vice president on July 1. The House of Representatives will vote on whether it will accept the Senate's changes to its bill.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP on June 28 deployed a new "unknown" code for reporting country of smelt or cast for derivative aluminum imports to the ACE certification and production environments, as expected (see 2506130062), according to a June 30 cargo systems message. As a result, goods for which the country of smelt or cast is known will now face a 200% tariff on their aluminum content.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on Bloomberg Television on June 30, didn't predict how many deals would be announced with the 18 largest trading partners of the U.S. before July 9. However, he said that countries "are coming in with offers" that long-time staff negotiators "can't believe," because they're so good.
Importer American Eel Depot filed a pair of complaints at the Court of International Trade on June 27 to contest CBP's classification of its frozen roasted eel under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 1604.17.10 and secondary subheading 9903.88.03, subjecting the goods to Section 301 duties. The company argued that its goods aren't products of China but, in fact, have a country of origin of the U.S. (American Eel Depot v. United States, CIT # 21-00278, -00279).