Veeco, Rare Tariffs Backer, Wants Duties Expanded on LED-Related Chinese Imports

Though the vast majority of the nearly 3,000 comments in docket USTR-2018-0026 opposed a third tranche of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods, Veeco Instruments supports the proposed duties on “indicator panels incorporating LCDs or LEDs” imported from China under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8531.20.00 subheading, said the company in Aug. 30 comments posted Sunday. Veeco also wants U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to impose duties on six more tariffs lines of LED-related goods not currently proposed in the third tranche, said the company in a heavily redacted document to hide “business confidential” information. The eight-page document also contained roughly two dozen redactions to hide Veeco's identity, except for one reference by name to Veeco that apparently slipped through. A revised document posted in the docket Tuesday deleted that one Veeco reference and replaced the previous document, which is now listed in the docket as "restricted to show metadata only because it contains confidential business information data." The publicly traded Veeco did about $485 million in 2017 revenue, mainly through the sales of semiconductor process equipment used to produce LEDs and other components, said the company’s most recent SEC 10-K. Imposing tariffs on LEDs and products containing them will “ensure that Chinese producers” positioned to manufacture those products “will not benefit from having unfettered access to the U.S. market,” said Veeco. The tariffs also “will encourage U.S. consumers to purchase such products from other sources that do not rely on stolen intellectual property to make these products,” it said. Luke Meisner, the Schagrin Associates lawyer who filed the comments on Veeco's behalf, declined comment Tuesday.