Section 201 Safeguards

Solar importers intend to oppose President Donald Trump’s Oct. 10 proclamation ending an exemption from safeguard duties for bifacial panels (see 2010130028), they told the Court of International Trade in a status report filed Oct. 15. The proclamation runs contrary to the safeguard laws, and is barred by a CIT injunction currently in effect against the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s earlier attempts to end the exemption, they said. The brief was filed hours after a related court decision left the injunction in place.

As the International Trade Commission begins its investigation into safeguard actions to protect U.S. blueberry growers, a Canadian Embassy spokesperson notes that the North American trade treaty requires that Canada be excluded from a global safeguard tariff if “Canadian imports are not contributing to serious injury or any threat of serious injury to the U.S. domestic industry. This is the case for U.S. imports of Canadian blueberries. As a result, Canada expects that the United States will not apply any safeguard tariff or quota on blueberry imports from Canada.”

The International Trade Commission is beginning an investigation into whether to extend Section 201 safeguard duties on large residential washers, it said in a notice released Aug. 11. The ITC will consider whether the tariff-rate quota put in place in 2018 “continues to be necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury and whether there is evidence that the domestic industry is making a positive adjustment to import competition.”

2020 outpaced even the active 2019 in terms of the frequency of Harmonized Tariff Schedule updates. Most of the updates implemented new Section 301 exclusions and changes and extensions for existing ones. Other major changes included new Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum "derivatives" and the withdrawal of Generalized System of Preferences benefits for many goods from Thailand In all, 13 revisions were issued prior to the mid-year Revision 14, as follows:

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a statement late on May 27 criticizing a Court of International Trade decision issued that day that kept in place an injunction barring the withdrawal of an exemption for bifacial panels from Section 201 safeguard duties on solar cells (see 2005270025). “Today, Judge Katzmann of the Court of International Trade blocked USTR from closing the bifacial panel exception. USTR strongly disagrees with Judge Katzmann’s analysis,” the statement said. “The solar industry and the jobs it represents are important to this country, and USTR will take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure that its safeguard relief is effective.”

The termination of an exemption from solar safeguard duties for bifacial solar panels will not yet proceed, after the Court of International Trade on May 27 refused to dissolve an injunction blocking its withdrawal, despite the government’s claims that a recent request for comments resolved the court’s concerns.

An increase in the quantity of solar cells allowed a low rate under Section 201 safeguard duties would help U.S. solar module producers, though it could cost a U.S. company emerging from bankruptcy should it opt to restart production of solar cells, the International Trade Commission said in a report released March 6. As proposed by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in December (see 1912200013), an increase in the TRQ threshold from 2.5 gigawatts to 4, 5 or 6 gigawatts would “likely result in a substantial increase in U.S. module producers’ production, capacity utilization, and employment,” the ITC said. “This is because U.S. module producers would gain expanded access to imported cells at lower prices (due to application of safeguard duties on fewer cells) during the remaining two years of the safeguard measure,” it said. While Panasonic, the only current producer of solar cells in the U.S., would likely not be affected, Suniva, which exited bankruptcy in March 2019, could see reduced profits under the higher safeguard if it starts making solar cells again, the ITC said.

The International Trade Commission recently issued two new revisions to the 2019 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Changes include new and amended exclusions from Section 301 tariffs from China, as well as a decrease in tariffs for goods on list 4A. The ITC also implemented new Section 232 tariffs on some finished goods of steel and aluminum that took effect Feb. 8, as well as a shift to a quarterly tariff-rate quota for imports of large residential washers subject to Section 201 safeguard duties.

The National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones appealed to CBP officials during the group's annual legislative summit on Feb. 11 on the issue of CBP's treatment of goods that are in foreign-trade zones and are subject to the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China that will be reduced on Feb. 14. CBP said in a recent CSMS message about the tariff decrease that the applicable tariff rate for goods in FTZs is based on “the rate of duty and tax in force on the date of filing the application for privileged foreign status.” That policy has prompted some industry claims of inconsistency by the agency (see 2002050038).

The following is a selection of articles that appeared in International Trade Today in 2019 covering ruling letters. CBP frequently publishes rulings months after they are issued, so these articles are included based on the dates the articles were published, rather than the date the ruling letter was issued.