Apparel importers and retailers don't have much favor in this administration, but groups representing their interests tried to appeal to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's logical side in comments requested by the agency on the reciprocal tariffs slated for April 2. The trade group representing the greatly diminished domestic textile and apparel industry, in contrast, said reciprocal tariffs could be used to recoup $100 billion in annual lost sales.
National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones Chair Shannon Fura, a founder of Chicago law firm Page Fura, said the language in President Donald Trump's recent executive orders creating new tariffs, which say that goods must pay tariffs before entering FTZs, "are handcuffing some of the benefits" that FTZs are designed to provide.
CBP on March 19 released guidance on 10% tariffs on Canadian energy goods in the form of a spreadsheet that lists commodities and their respective tariff subheadings that could be subject to the additional 10% tariff, rather than the 25% tariff applicable to other non-USMCA Canadian goods. Attached to a CSMS message, the spreadsheet includes not only petroleum products, uranium, coal and biofuels, but also rare earths covered by the 10% tariffs and metals of chapters 72, 73 and 76 that are alloyed with rare earths, among other things.
Nearly 750 organizations and businesses gave input to the administration on trade barriers or subsidies that prevent them from reaching their sales potential.
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Jennifer Thornton, who recently led the Business Roundtable's advocacy on trade policy, has joined the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as general counsel. Before going to the trade group that represents America's largest companies, she was trade counsel to Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., when they were in the minority on the House Ways and Means Committee.
When the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked for comments on policies that reduce U.S. exports, most agricultural trade associations -- and a few companies -- laid out their concerns about tariffs or sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) barriers that prevent their exports from reaching their potential.
Among more than 700 submissions to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative -- as the administration seeks to quantify the cost to American exporters and producers of trade barriers and unfair subsidies -- were just over a dozen from trade groups representing foreign companies, American chambers of commerce specific to foreign markets, and foreign governments.
The Border Trade Alliance asked the Commerce Department to refund duties paid by importers during the brief imposition of tariffs on Mexico and Canada last week.
Roll and Harris, a law firm specializing in customs law, put out a newsletter alerting clients that they should not assume that they can amend an entry to say that Canadian or Mexican goods qualify for USMCA if their initial entry summary didn't.