India again delayed retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., pushing the new start to June 16, according to a notice from India’s Ministry of Finance. The tariffs, first announced in May 2018, will target agricultural products, motorcycles, steel products, and phosphoric and boric acid, and are aimed at offsetting the $241 million in duties India expects its U.S. customers to pay on its steel and aluminum exports. The tariffs have been delayed multiple times after they were originally expected to take effect in June 2018. Many of the items already face high tariffs -- walnuts are taxed at 100 percent, fresh apples at 50 percent, chickpeas at 60 percent, motorcycles at 100 percent -- but the actions would add 10 percent more to many ag products, 20 percent more to walnuts and almonds, and 50 percent more to motorcycles.
Country of origin cases
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security added 12 foreign entities or persons to BIS’s Entity List, according to a May 13 notice, including several entities in China. BIS said the additions include four entities with locations in China and Hong Kong, along with two other entities in China and one Pakistani entity and five entities or individuals in the United Arab Emirates. Each is now subject to specific license requirements “for the export, reexport, and/or in-country transfer of controlled items,” BIS said. The 12 "have been determined by the U.S. Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests," the agency said in a separate notice.
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of May 10 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
The U.S. seized a North Korean cargo ship for violating U.S. and international sanctions after it transported coal and “heavy machinery” and used U.S. banks for various transactions, the Department of Justice said in a May 9 press release.
China will take “necessary countermeasures” if the U.S. follows through on threats to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, according to an unofficial translation of a statement released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce on May 8. “The escalation of trade friction is not in the interests of the people of the two countries and the people of the world,” the statement said. “The Chinese side deeply regrets that if the US tariff measures are implemented, China will have to take necessary countermeasures.”
In the May 3 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Vietnam is banning imports of outdated machinery and production line equipment beginning June 15, according to a post on the Vietnam Briefing blog from Dezan Shira & Associates. The import ban is part of a larger prohibition on the use of imported machinery, equipment and production line technology that is more than 10 years old that also takes effect that date, the blog post said.
In the April 30 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:
The U.S. consumer technology sector exported $172.4 billion worth of goods in 2017, said a PricewaterhouseCoopers economic-impact report commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association. PwC, using the Census Bureau’s “origin of movement” (OM) data, estimated Texas was the top export state with shipments of $44.8 billion, followed by California ($35.7 billion) and Florida ($12.3 billion). Canada was the top market for U.S. consumer tech sector goods, followed by the Netherlands and Germany, it said. There are “limitations” to using OM data for the analysis, the report said. One is that it doesn’t cover services exports, another is that its focus is on “the transportation origin of exports, as opposed to the production origin,” it said. This runs the risk it will “misallocate credit for certain exported goods to states where there are major export hubs,” it said. “However, we are not aware of another data set that provides better visibility” into state- and product-specific “trade flows,” it said.