A group of domestic manufacturers filed petitions on Dec. 18 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duty investigations on fluid end bocks from Germany, India and Italy, and new countervailing duties on the same product from China, Germany, India and Italy. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on fluid end blocks that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The petition was filed by the FEB Fair Trade Coalition, the Ellwood Group, and Finkl Steel.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will ask for comments on whether the second set of tariff exclusions on Chinese imports on Section 301 List 1, set to expire March 25, should last another year, it said in a pre-publication notice on its website. The agency will start accepting comments on the extensions in docket number USTR-2019-0024 on Jan. 15. The comments are due by Feb. 15, it said. The USTR recently granted extensions to six exclusions, while letting 25 expire, from the first group of exclusions (see 1912190060).
The volume of Section 301 List 4A tariff exclusion requests surpassed 1,000 on Dec. 19, 49 days after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened the public docket to applications at noon on Halloween. Applicants that are granted exclusions can qualify for refunds of 15 percent tariffs retroactive to Sept. 1, when the duties took effect. List 4A tariffs remain in effect at 15 percent, but are expected to be rolled back by half after the U.S.-China phase one trade deal is signed sometime in January 2020. Under USTR rules, tariff exemptions are granted on all goods imported under a product classification, not just to the company making the exclusion request. Nine applications were filed through Dec. 19 to exempt goods imported under subheading 8517.62.00.90, more than for any consumer tech product with List 4A exposure. The subheading includes a broad swath of consumer tech goods, including smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones, fitness trackers and smartwatches. Virtually all List 4A exclusion requests filed by all companies through Nov. 29 were elevated to the status of a “stage 2 initial substantive review,” the docket shows. The final “stage 4” is when an exclusion request is granted and approved for publication in the Federal Register.
CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1920 on Dec. 19, containing 40,715 Automated Broker Interface records and 7,393 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, it said in a CSMS message. The update includes recently announced exclusions and other changes related to the Section 301 tariffs (see 1912060031 and 1912130028). Other changes involve units of quantities and the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S.
CBP added on Dec. 19 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs, it said in a CSMS message. Filers of imported products that were granted an exclusion (see 1912130028) should report the regular Chapters 03, 08, 21, 48, 54, 56, 73, 76, 83, 84, 85, 87 and 94, CBP said in the message. “Importers shall not submit the corresponding Chapter 99 HTS number for the Section 301 duties when” subheading 9903.88.36 is submitted, CBP said.
Modems manufactured in China and sent to Canada for programming and other processing are not transformed in Canada and should be considered a product of China, CBP said in a Nov. 26 ruling. The ruling was in response to a request from Electroline Equipment, which asked CBP about NAFTA treatment and the country of origin of the transponders. The transponders are subject to the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China because China is the country of origin, the agency said.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated with 162 rulings on Dec.18. The following headquarters rulings not involving carriers were modified on Dec. 18, according to CBP:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will grant one-year extensions to only six exclusions from the first list of Section 301 tariffs on China that were due to expire Dec. 28, it said in a pre-publication copy of a notice posted to its website. The notice is silent on the other 25 exclusions issued alongside the six that were granted extensions, so those 25 now appear set to expire on Dec. 28.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec.9-13 in case they were missed.
There continues to be “a lot of moving parts” to the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said on a fiscal Q1 call on Dec. 12. With the “current news” that the U.S. and China are close to a “Phase One” trade deal, “we will have to wait and see,” he said. U.S. and Chinese negotiators confirmed agreement Dec. 13 on the Phase One deal (see 1912130035) that includes rolling back the List 4A tariffs by half to 7.5 percent and suspending the List 4B duties that were to take effect Dec. 15. The Trump administration said it’s keeping the 25 percent tariffs in place on the first three tranches of goods.