Mara Lee

Extended exemptions from Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel left some countries and importers relieved, but others uncertain as to what is around the corner on June 1. Announced the evening of April 30 just hours before the deadline, the proclamations on steel and aluminum announce full, if undefined, exemptions for Argentina, Brazil and Australia, the final details of a steel exemption for South Korea, and a delay until the beginning of June 1 for Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said it will be very difficult to get China to change the policies that are the reasons the U.S. opened the Section 301 investigation. "I am always hoping, but not always hopeful," he said to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce audience two days before he leaves for negotiations in Beijing.

The U.S. appealed the World Trade Organization's compliance panel decision that said the U.S. had to change its countervailing duties on oil country tubular goods, solar panels, pressure pipe and line pipe. The CVD cases were brought between 2007 and 2012. The core issue in the case is whether the Commerce Department properly described the government's intervention in Chinese firms that made those products when it targeted them for trade remedies. The appeal was published at the WTO on April 30.

Only one of the allies that have so far avoided tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. has agreed to reducing the volume of those exports -- and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says all will have to if they don't want to face tariffs. "If people don't have the tariffs, and they don't have the quota, that would defeat the whole purpose of the [Section] 232s," he said, which is to boost aluminum and steel production domestically. Since the temporary tariff exemptions for the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Australia end May 1, it remains to be seen if countries in talks with the U.S. will get another extension.

Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton pointed to one of President Donald Trump's tweets about e-commerce to explain why Canada sees the need for conservative de minimis levels, but said changing it has been under discussion in NAFTA negotiations. "Is there a number between 20 [dollars] and 800 [dollars] that works? Probably," he said. He said he presumes that before the deal is finished, Canada will raise its de minimis level, but said it will probably be to a lot less than $800. He also said he doesn't expect the U.S. de minimis level to necessarily move down to the same amount Canada agrees to.

Leaders of the New Democrat Coalition, who traditionally vote for free trade deals, expressed their frustration that the U.S. trade representative is not telling them what is happening in NAFTA negotiations. At a press conference April 26, Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., Rep. Kendrick Meeks, D-N.Y., and Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., said they need to know where NAFTA is headed. "We're getting the sense more and more" that the administration intends to bring a rewritten NAFTA as a fait accompli, Kind said. "I would suggest their tactics are wrong and they shouldn't take these votes for granted," Larsen said.

Canada is publishing regulatory changes expanding the scope of steel and aluminum products that have to be marked with their country of origin, harmonizing the list with U.S. requirements, according to a press release from the prime minister's office. The move comes amid other measures related to steel and aluminum, including more than $30 million in additional funding to the Canada Border Services Agency and Global Affairs Canada to bolster the country's efforts "to prevent transshipment and diversion of unfairly priced foreign steel and aluminum into the North American market," it said. The new funding, which will be set at $6.8 million annually for five years, will pay for more than 40 new officers to investigate trade complaints. This April 26 announcement follows one in March (see 1803270026) also designed to address America's concerns about illegally subsidized steel and aluminum imports, the subject of the Section 232 action.

Stakeholders continue to ask for additional and enhanced ACE capabilities, and the agency is working on system enhancements to enable de minimis functionality, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security in his prepared opening statement. Creating de minimis functionality "will provide CBP access to previously unavailable admissibility data for low value shipments, resulting in improved cargo processing and use of enforcement resources," he said.

Discussions of auto rules of origin are getting more specific as NAFTA talks continue, according to Canada's Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, who spoke to reporters outside the headquarters of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on April 25. "We are starting to get into a more detailed conversation, which is absolutely necessary, given the fiendish complexity of rules of origin for cars -- and I think it's a really good thing we're starting to dig into the details," she said. Some say that the U.S. has compromised very little on its higher rules-of-origin demands (see 1804230048), as U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is not convinced by auto companies' complaints.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will lead a delegation to China in a few days to discuss trade issues, including potential Section 301 tariffs, President Donald Trump said during a press conference April 24. Mnuchin, joined by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, will discuss unfair intellectual property rights issues that led the U.S. to propose the 25 percent tariffs under Section 301. Tariffs will be levied "unless we make a trade deal. I think we've got a very good chance of making a deal," Trump said in a meeting earlier in the day.