International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Dispute panelists chosen by the U.S., Canada and Mexico grappled with whether Mexico and Canada should have understood the implications of how core parts origination could be established as they negotiated the language in the automotive annex and the standard rules of origin chapter in the USMCA.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative often found itself weighing the possible harm to U.S. consumers from the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs against the need to give the duties enough teeth to curb China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, the agency said in its 90-page “remand determination,” filed Aug. 1 at the Court of International Trade (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT #21-00052). Submitting its bid to ease the court's concerns over modifications made to the third and fourth tariff waves, USTR provided its justifications for removing various goods from the tariff lists ranging from critical minerals to seafood products.
The International Trade Commission posted Revision 8 to the 2022 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The update added new secondary 10-digit tariff numbers for baby formula and products of Russia.
In filings at the USMCA Secretariat, Mexico and Canada say the Uniform Regulations for USMCA are clear, and say that " roll-up applies to the calculation of [regional value content] RVC for a vehicle. It obliges Parties to take 'no account' of the non-originating materials contained in an originating good when that good is used in the subsequent production of another good."
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., said that even though the politics around an end-of-year tax extender may change if Congress makes some renewable energy tax credits permanent, he believes it's still likely that the modernization act for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program and Miscellaneous Tariff Bill can get done by the end of the year.
The Federal Maritime Commission is making headway on implementing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 and is preparing two new rules that will further revise or clarify how its regulations apply to carrier and shipping practices.
A controversial electric vehicle purchase tax credit (see 2203010064) that was limited to cars and trucks assembled in U.S. plants by union workers has been changed to a tax credit that says the vehicle has to have final assembly in North America. Purchases of new clean vehicles (they can include fuel cells, not just EVs) are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit for buyers whose joint income is below $300,000 or an individual taxpayer with a modified adjusted gross income of $150,000 or less.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a July 28 opinion held that CBP timely liquidated or reliquidated 10 entries of wooden bedroom furniture. The court ruled that the first unambiguous indication that an injunction against liquidation had ended came from liquidation instructions from the Commerce Department that were sent within the six months prior to liquidation, making the liquidation of the entries timely.
Although President Joe Biden criticized President Donald Trump's China tariffs on the campaign trail, Peterson Institute for International Economics Senior Fellow Chad Bown said he always thought it was unlikely Biden would roll any of them back, because there are "huge political costs" to doing so, because opponents could label you as "weak on China."