The Supreme Court's recent decision eliminating the standard of deferring to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguous statutes (see 2406280051) "will likely result in more litigation in the already heavily litigated world of international trade," two ArentFox Schiff partners said in a client alert.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, in a long acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention July 18, said Chinese companies are building large automobile factories in Mexico, and that "the United Auto Workers ought to be ashamed for allowing this to happen." He also said their leader "should be fired immediately, and every single autoworker, union and nonunion, should be voting for Donald Trump because we’re going to bring back car manufacturing, and we’re going to bring it back fast."
The Hyshield brand plant fertilizer produced by British Columbia-based Sipco Innovations ultimately should have China as its country of origin for marking purposes. However, the country of origin for the Hyshield product is Canada for Section 301 purposes, and it qualifies for preferential tariff treatment under USMCA, according to a May 8 ruling addressed to CBP’s Pharmaceuticals, Health and Chemicals Center of Excellence and Expertise in Newark, New Jersey, and recently released by CBP.
Dan Ujczo, senior counsel in Thompson Hine's trade practice, said he expects a second Biden or Trump administration to say it won't authorize USMCA to continue for another 16 years in 2026, when the trade pact is up for review.
The government of Mexico has asked the U.S. to exempt Mexican bifacial solar panels from a global safeguard tariff. Economy Secretary Raquel Buenrostro noted that USMCA, or T-MEC, as they call it in Mexico, has rules in this regard. The July 12 press release didn't spell it out, but safeguards are only to be applied to Mexico and Canada if their imports are integral to the injury to U.S. producers; the U.S. eventually reversed the solar panel safeguard on all Canadian panels (see 2207070041).
Canada's half-hearted attempts to comply with dairy tariff rate quotas and the refusal of the U.S. to comply with the auto rules of origin ruling are undermining the USMCA and could make its review more painful, panelists from Canada and Mexico said this week.
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are asking the Biden administration to open a Section 301 investigation on the discriminatory effects of Canada's recently enacted digital services tax. The administration earlier conducted investigations on other countries planning DSTs, but did not impose tariffs, as talks on a global taxation solution proceed.
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The International Trade Commission posted Revision 4 to the 2024 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The semiannual update to the HTS adds new 10-digit tariff numbers for a variety of products, including integrated circuits and plantation-harvested teak.
A former top trade negotiator in Mexico, Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, said he doesn't think the review of the USMCA will be about fine-tuning or technical changes to the trade pact.