High tech goods from China that are eligible for USMCA treatment remain subject to applicable Section 301 tariffs, CBP said in a Sept. 11 ruling. The ruling is a follow-up to a ruling in August that addressed a question of whether goods that originate in China and imported from Mexico are eligible for USMCA treatment (see 2008110037). While CBP in the previous ruling said that such goods are eligible for USMCA treatment, the agency didn't say then whether the Section 301 tariffs would apply.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Sept. 8-11 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Four companies and a “training center” in the Xinjiang region of China will be subject to withhold release orders, CBP said Sept. 14. Despite some expectations otherwise (see 2009090053), the new WROs don't apply to Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which would have amounted to a more “regional” approach by the agency. CBP is still looking at broader restrictions on cotton, textile and tomato products from the region under a WRO, but is undertaking further “legal analysis” on the issue, Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Kenneth Cuccinelli said during a call with reporters.
A vinyl tile supplier challenged the extension of tariffs to cover the third list of goods from China using Section 301 tariff authority, in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10 at the Court of International Trade. Represented by lawyers at Akin Gump, HMTX Industries and subsidiaries Halstead and Metroflor said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative overstepped the Section 301 statute when it made more goods subject to the tariffs 12 months after the beginning of the investigation. The law doesn't provide authority for the government to “litigate a vast trade war for however long, and by whatever means, they choose,” the company said.
CBP is developing a “hybrid” process for low-value shipments based on the lessons from the low-value shipment data and Entry Type 86 pilots, Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, said during a CBP Virtual Trade Week session Sept. 10. “We are looking at what a hybrid is going to look like,” he said. “What kind of process can collect this additional information from the party who owns it, get it in an early enough time for safety and security and enforcement perspective?” he said.
CBP is seeing an uptick in companies pulling out of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Manuel Garza, CBP director of CTPAT in the Office of Field Operations, said. “Because of COVID, we have seen an increase in the number of companies that have withdrawn from the program,” he said. The program still has about 11,400 total members and 315 trade compliance members, he said while speaking at a CBP Virtual Trade Week session Sept. 9. Some 53.4% of U.S. imports by value are CTPAT-certified, according to a CBP presentation.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Aug. 31-Sept. 4 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP should block imports of “all cotton-made goods linked to the Xinjiang region of China based on evidence of widespread forced labor,” human rights groups said in a recent news release. The coalition, which includes the AFL-CIO, the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Human Trafficking Legal Center, filed a petition with the agency Aug. 28 to request a withhold release order on such products. “Industry groups have repeatedly requested clear guidance from the US government and a regional WRO would provide it,” the coalition said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories from Aug. 24-28 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
CBP will add the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs on Sept. 3, it said in a CSMS message. The official Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice for the exclusions was published Aug. 24 (see 2008210003). The two exclusions are in subheading 9903.88.48. The exclusions are available for any product that meets the description in the Annex to USTR’s notice, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. The product exclusions are already expired but will apply retroactively to Sept. 24, 2018, the date the tariffs on the third list took effect, and through Aug. 7, 2020. The CSMS message also includes a summary of Section 301 duties that shows information on each tranche of tariffs and granted product exclusions.