The International Trade Commission will recommend an extension to Section 201 safeguard tariffs on solar cells that began in 2018, it said Nov. 24. The commission found the safeguard “continues to be necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury to the U.S. industry, and that there is evidence that the domestic industry is making a positive adjustment to import competition.” The ITC said it will submit a report by Dec. 8 to President Joe Biden, who will make a final decision on whether to extend the safeguard duties. Unless extended, the safeguard will expire Feb. 6, 2022.
Customs duty
A customs duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs duty rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight. U.S. customs duties are listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that since Turkey agreed to remove its digital services taxes before the international tax agreement takes effect, "the United States will terminate the currently-suspended additional duties on goods of Turkey that had been adopted in the DST Section 301 investigation." The goods that could have been targeted with additional 25% tariffs were in 32 subheadings, and there was more than $300 million worth of the products imported from Turkey in 2019 (see 2106020047).
Congress should direct CBP to impose "a region-wide Withhold Release Order on products originating from Xinjiang, China," the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said within a group of 32 recommendations for lawmakers. Congress should also require the Department of Homeland Security "to provide a comprehensive list of technologies needed and an outline of the resources required to enforce the Withhold Release Order and address other instances of China’s use of forced labor." it said in the report, released Nov. 17.
The Court of International Trade again struck down the Trump administration's withdrawal of an exclusion from the Section 201 solar safeguard measures for bifacial solar panels, in its second opinion rejecting Trump administration's elimination of the exclusion as many days. Judge Gary Katzmann found that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's exclusion withdrawal was an "arbitrary and capricious agency decision" and represented a move with no statutory authority. Just a day earlier, Katzmann ruled against a presidential proclamation attempting to withdraw the bifacial panel exclusion, which came as a direct response to the CIT's preliminary injunction in the case over the USTR's move.
Watch and clock importers are required to include origin information about the components when subject to the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, CBP said in an Nov. 8 CSMS message. "In circumstances where the band or case component in watches or clocks are made in China, if the band or case component(s) are not substantially transformed and are subject to Section 301 duties, then all of the components need to be constructively separated into their component parts and each component separately valued and reported on separate entry summary lines," CBP said.
Tech companies and trade associations favor working more closely with U.S. trade partners to diversify information and communications technology (ICT) supply chains and make them more resilient to disruption and bottlenecks, several commented Nov. 4 in BIS-2021-0021. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security sought comment to help the secretaries of Commerce and Homeland Security prepare a report to the White House on supply chain disruptions in the “critical sectors and subsectors” of the ICT “industrial base” by the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s Feb. 24 executive order (see 2109170029).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative voiced support for the current CAFTA-DR rules of origin as the best way to support the textile industry in the Northern Triangle countries, following an Oct. 29 meeting with a domestic industry textiles group. Imports from Central American countries covered by the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement have been flat since the agreement came into effect 15 years ago and some have talked about loosening restrictive textile rules of origin to boost production there.
Correction: Superon Schweisstechnik India LTD. challenged CBP's classification of welding wires as subject to Section 232 tariffs (see 2110270045).
Corruption, poor logistics and overly strict rules of origin are all barriers to Mexico benefiting from companies' decisions to diversify out of China, a panel of experts from Mexico and the U.S. said. Luis de la Calle, a former Mexican trade official who worked on implementing NAFTA and who represented Mexico at the World Trade Organization, said Mexican leaders have a lack of vision to take advantage of this moment, and he said they are also hobbled by what he called "ideological incompetence."
Eleven of the 49 Democratic senators have told U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai that the inputs for manufacturing protective gowns and masks and finished masks and surgical gowns should not continue to receive exclusions to Section 301 duties. The previous administration decided that goods needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic should not face higher tariffs, but these senators, led by Ohio's Sen. Sherrod Brown and Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, argue that domestic manufacturers need the tariff barrier to be competitive.