Many importers who were hit with Section 301 tariffs six years ago expected they would be rolled back in 18 months or two or three years, said Nicole Bivens Collinson, director of Sandler Travis's international trade and government relations practice. Then, once that didn't happen, they thought they'd see what happened in the Biden administration.
Full details about the Section 301 exclusion process will be revealed next week, but a White House memo said that importers of machinery in chapters 84 and 85 will need to submit requests for exclusions, even though the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative already has compiled a list of HTS codes it sees as appropriate targets for exclusions. The memo said there will be a way to register opposition to those requests, as well. The memo said the USTR "shall prioritize, in particular, exclusions for certain solar manufacturing equipment."
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will hold a virtual listening session about negotiations in the U.S.-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership on May 16 at 10 a.m. Stakeholders who would like to attend should email MBX.USTR.IAPE@USTR.eop.gov by 6 p.m. May 15.
The administration will hike tariffs this year on steel and aluminum, solar cells (including in modules), ship to shore cranes, electric vehicles, lithium-ion EV batteries, battery parts, some critical minerals, certain respirators and face masks, syringes and needles, and will hike tariffs on other Chinese imports next year and in 2026. A White House fact sheet on the tariffs doesn't include more specific dates.
Section 301 China tariff changes outlined by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative May 14 will take effect approximately 90 days after a request for comments that will be issued next week. That includes a 100% tariff on Chinese-origin electric vehicles, as well as the jump to 25% Section 301 tariffs on steel and aluminum products, ship to shore cranes, lithium-ion electric vehicle batteries, battery parts for non-lithium-ion batteries, "some critical minerals" and face masks, and a bump to 50% tariffs on solar cells, syringes and needles, the White House said in a fact sheet.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments, requests to testify and written testimony on which countries should be included in the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Comments are due June 6, ahead of a June 27 hearing, at regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2024-0006. Parties may ask for the removal of any of the 32 countries currently covered by the AGOA trade preference, or argue for the reinstatement of countries that have been removed from the program, or have never been part of it, such as Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda or Zimbabwe.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai issued a statement of disappointment more than a week after Mexico announced that a panel decision had agreed with its argument that labor violations at a zinc mine in San Martín were not subject to the USMCA rapid response labor mechanism, because they occurred before USMCA replaced NAFTA (see 2404260055).
Customs lawyer John Foote, speaking at the Washington International Trade Association during a panel on import bans, investments and export controls, questioned whether the Biden administration is ready to coordinate forced labor import bans with allies, given how the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is still in its infancy.
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., and Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., introduced a bill, the U.S.-Africa Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership Act of 2024, that directs the U.S. to develop a strategy to promote the African Continental Free Trade Agreement's implementaiton, and to promote trade and investment in Africa for industries where the U.S. has a comparative advantage relative to other non-African countries.
Trade groups, companies and a union that represent the aluminum and steel sectors told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that they need more protection from import competition, by expansion of the scope of Section 232 tariffs, and by re-negotiation of the rules of origin in both trade agreements and the Section 232 exclusion for Canada and Mexico.