Just over 4,500 Section 301 exclusion requests have been denied by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, according to an update published late Feb. 28. There have been 985 exclusion requests granted, covering 21 tariff lines. The largest number of the granted requests were for plastic injection molds, three types of radial bearings, linear-acting hydraulic motors and water coolers. This is much larger than the last update, published Dec. 21, 2018, when fewer than 25 had been granted (see 1812240010).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The day after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Rep. Jackie Walorski at a hearing that he still believes there's no need for exclusions from 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports, she and Rep. Ron Kind have introduced a bill that would force him to put the process in place. Their bill -- which has a Senate companion written by Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. -- is called the Import Tax Relief Act.
CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1902 on Feb. 26, containing 40 Automated Broker Interface records and 11 harmonized tariff records, it said in a CSMS message. The update includes changes related to the delayed increase to Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. "Changes were made to extend the 10 percent duty rate" on Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9903.88.03, the agency said. "This will allow for pre filing of entries at the 10 percent duty rate. Further updates are possible after the forthcoming Federal Register notice is published."
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who is leading the China trade talks, downplayed the possibility that President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign a trade agreement a month from now. Lighthizer, who testified before the House Ways and Means Committee Feb. 27, was asked by Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., if he sees a package coming in the next few weeks. "I’m not foolish enough to think there’s going to be one negotiation that’s going to change all the practices in China," Lighthizer replied. "At the end of this negotiation, if we’re successful, there'll be a signing." But that's the beginning of a long process to monitor China's compliance with what it promises to do.
A domestic steel manufacturer filed petitions on Feb. 20 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duty investigations on carbon and alloy steel wire rod from China, India, Taiwan and Thailand, and new countervailing duties on the same product from China and India. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on carbon and alloy steel threaded rod that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The petition was filed by Vulcan Steel Products.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 19-22 in case they were missed.
President Donald Trump will again postpone an increase to Section 301 tariffs on China that had been set to take effect March 1, he said Feb. 24 in a pair of tweets. The delay comes as a result of “substantial progress in our trade talks with China on important structural issues including intellectual property protection, technology transfer, agriculture, services, currency, and many other issues,” he said.
The signals that tariffs will not go up on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports on March 2 is a small relief for businesses, according to Venable partner Lindsay Meyer, but they're still challenged by the difficulty "of forecasting what the second half of this year will present." Some importers that work with Venable are getting their suppliers to shoulder some of the additional tariff costs; others are declining to enter two-year contracts unless there's the ability to reopen the deals if tariffs increase. "The companies, they’re making their plans cautiously," she said. "I think the anxiety level isn’t at a level 10 that it was, but it certainly hasn’t dropped down below 5."
Bank of America Merrill Lynch research analysts take a "benign view" of the likelihood of new Section 232 tariffs on the auto sector and an increase to the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, they said in a Feb. 15 report. Aditya Bhave and Ethan Harris, both global economists at the bank, said that while the Commerce Department seems likely to conclude that auto imports are a national security threat, "sustained auto tariffs" are not expected. "Reasons include delays in the release of the report, the extent of lobbying pressure against the tariffs, and the Trump administration’s hesitance to slap tariffs on consumer products, of which autos are among the most visible," the economists said.