Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai urging them to take action to “immediately and meaningfully limit the volume of Mexican steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) being imported into the United States.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security sent a final rule for interagency review that could make changes to the exclusion process for Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. BIS sent the rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Feb. 15, about six months after it published proposed changes aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of exclusion requests and objections (see 2308250035).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that talking about tariffs more than other aspects of trade policy is, to a large degree, "a red herring," and said reducing U.S. trade policy "down to a conversation about tariffs is really unfair."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 29-Feb. 4:
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.
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 Commerce Department reversed course in its final determination on antidumping duties for South Korean tin mill products, setting new AD cash deposit requirements on TCC Steel and all other South Korean exporters besides KG Dongbu Steel, according to a fact sheet released Jan. 5. Commerce had found no South Korean steelmaker was guilty of dumping tin mill products in its preliminary determination; on Jan. 5, it found that Dongbu is not dumping, but that the other steelmakers' tin mill should be subject to a 2.69% duty.
An importer's entries are subject to Section 232 tariffs because the vessel arrival date transmitted in ACE by the ship's captain came after the tariffs took effect on June 1, 2018, despite the importer's claim -- backed by different documentation -- that the goods actually arrived in port and had a date of entry prior to that date, CBP said in a recent ruling.
CBP will on Feb. 15 begin deactivating some Section 232 exclusions when they reach 95% of capacity, addressing concerns in a recent Government Accountability Office report that duties were going unpaid because the agency was letting importers exceed their exclusion limits (see 2307210064).