The latest list of goods from China proposed to be subject to 25 percent Section 301 tariffs appears to hit chemicals, plastics, resins and semiconductors, according to a list of tariff subheadings released by the U.S. Trade Representative on June 15 (see 1806150003). Other affected products include cargo containers, tractors and railway equipment. Comments on the list are due July 23 and a hearing is scheduled for July 24 (see 1806190060). New tariffs on 818 other subheadings from the original list take effect July 6.
Goods don’t qualify for duty-free treatment under the Nairobi Protocol simply because they are made to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Court of International Trade said in a June 19 decision. Toilets imported by Danze are classified as regular toilets, rather than falling under a special tariff provision for products specially designed for the handicapped, because they are meant and advertised for general use, despite including all features required under ADA standards for toilets, CIT said.
New Chinese 25 percent tariffs on goods from the U.S. set to take effect on July 6 (see 1806150037) are mostly focused on meat, agriculture and cars. China said it would impose initial tariffs on those and other goods mentioned in a first list on the same date the U.S will impose its Section 301 tariffs on goods from China (see 1806150003). China said it also plans to eventually add tariffs to goods mentioned in a second list, which includes chemical products, medical equipment and energy products.
Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee criticized Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on June 20 over the steel and aluminum tariffs and the implementation of granting exclusions for certain imports subject to those tariffs. Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, who described a nail maker in her home state of Missouri who is laying off more than half its 500-person workforce as its inputs' cost increases, told him: "it appears to me a chaotic and, frankly, incompetent manner you're picking winners and losers." Only Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, asked supportive questions during the hearing on tariffs.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted information on submitting public comments on the new list of products proposed for Section 301 tariffs. The notice again lists the products from China that will see new tariffs starting July 6 (see 1806150003) but doesn't spell out the process for requesting product exclusions. Those details will come in a separate notice, USTR said. The agency's notice also "creates a new Chapter 99 subheading for entry purposes (entries of articles classified in the tariff subheadings identified in Annex A have to use the new Chapter 99 classification as a secondary classification, so the additional 25% duty can be assessed) and addresses foreign trade zone admissions," Baker & McKenzie lawyer Ted Murphy said said in a June 18 blog post
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 11-17:
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on steel propane cylinders from China, Taiwan and Thailand (A-570-086, A-583-864, A-549-839), and countervailing duty investigation on steel propane cylinders from China (C-570-087).
The reactions from industry and Capitol Hill on the Section 301 tariffs were largely split along lines previously drawn over the Trump administration's general approach to tariffs. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said in a news release that while the changes from the initial list of products from China were "encouraging, " he is "alarmed that additional products are now placed on the list for possible future action." Brady called on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to "narrow these tariffs and implement an effective exclusion process that provides relief for American companies, unlike the problematic Commerce 232 exclusion process.”
The U.S. will begin collecting an additional 25 percent in tariffs on 818 lines of the original 1,333 tariff lines proposed in April, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced June 15. The tariffs will take effect July 6. Televisions, one of the most significant consumer products on the original list, are no longer facing tariffs.
Fossil watches that are dependent on a Bluetooth connection to a smartphone for timekeeping are best classified based on the radio transceiver, CBP said in an April 30 ruling. CBP issued ruling HQ H282905 in response to a tariff classification ruling request from Grunfeld Desiderio. Unlike this ruling, CBP has previously said that the watch function of wristwatches is determinative of the classification, even if the watch has Bluetooth capabilities (see 1606280030). On the other hand, a 2015 CBP ruling found that the essential character of smartwatches is based upon the radio transceiver that makes Bluetooth connections possible (see 1508050029).