The U.S. asked China to end its import restrictions on scrap and asked it to consider less trade-restrictive measures at the World Trade Organization. The European Union began the discussion about China's actions on recycled materials, and received support from five other countries critical of the practice. Countries that send scrap to China have been complaining at the WTO for months (see 1708220009), and although it did not end up banning waste imports, the restrictions it did impose are having "a huge impact on the global recycling chain," South Korean representatives said at the WTO on April 20. These restrictions are separate from the 25 percent tariff China is levying on U.S. aluminum scrap in retaliation for the Section 232 tariffs. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries says that the U.S. exported $2.34 billion in aluminum scrap in 2017, and about half of those exports went to China.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 16-20 in case they were missed.
CBP will have the ability to grant up to 300 days to reject entry summaries that are subject to new or coming tariffs, CBP said in a CSMS message. CBP will allow for up to 300 days, "with supervisory approval," for "rejecting entry summaries subject to import measures under Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, and Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962," CBP said. CBP also extended the time period for rejecting antidumping/countervailing duty entry summaries to 300 days "with supervisory approval," it said.
The American Association of Port Authorities urged the U.S. trade representative to consider the economic impact of tariffs before implementing them. "While AAPA does not comment on specific trade sanctions, prior to implementing any trade remedies or sanctions, we urge you to carefully consider the negative impacts these actions would have on port and other trade-related American jobs nationwide, including the effects of likely retaliatory responses from our trading partners," the trade group wrote to Robert Lighthizer on April 19.
The Commerce Department has not been able to keep up with the flood of product exclusion submissions -- the steel exclusion requests numbered 3,979 as of April 19, but just 120 have been posted for comments. For aluminum, there have been 396 exclusion requests, and 26 posted. No new filing has been posted since April 13 for aluminum, but the agency posted 44 steel product exclusion requests just on April 20th.
The U.S. agreed on April 19 to enter consultations on its Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum with the European Union and India. The action follows its announcement April 17 that it would consult with China on the matter. In all cases, the U.S. says the tariffs are not safeguards, as the countries allege, and that they are not subject to World Trade Organization dispute settlement because they are matters of national security.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 9-13 in case they were missed.
CBP is seeking comments by June 18 on an existing information collection related to the entry/immediate delivery applications and ACE cargo release, it said in a notice. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with minor changes to the information collected related to safeguard duties on washing machines and solar cells and Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products, as well as an increase of the estimated burden hours associated with the collection.
The slew of trade remedies "changes everything" for importers, making programs like drawback and foreign-trade zones more valuable to companies that previously didn't need to consider such options, said Amie Ahanchian, KPMG managing director, Trade and Customs Services, during an April 16 KPMG webinar. Of the 1,333 tariff lines on the Section 301 list (see 1804040019), about 60 percent, or around 800 line items, are duty-free today, she said. That means "if you're importing these items, you may not have ever considered a customs planning strategy because there were no duties to mitigate in the current trade environment," she said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, represents a state that exports lots of soybeans to China but remains critical of the U.S.'s largest trading partner in goods. He said he recently visited five cities in China with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and other senators. What he saw there convinced him that Chinese officials "will do anything legal or illegal, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical ... to get ahead and stay ahead." He added, "They are very strategic and we're very short-sighted." Grassley, speaking at a Senate Finance trade subcommittee hearing April 11 on access to China's market, said he's one of the only Congress members still in office who voted to allow China full membership in the World Trade Organization. "It hasn't turned out the way I anticipated," he said. "I kind of feel like I should feel sorry for my vote."