Drawback filers may “effective immediately” submit claims for refunds on Section 301 or Section 201 duties, CBP said in a Feb. 8 CSMS message. Filers will no longer receive error messages related to unit of measure (UOM) mismatches that had been occurring “because the underlying import did not have a UOM associated to a Chapter 99” tariff number or because they had left the mandatory UOM field blank, CBP said.

The National Retail Federation is optimistic about a de-escalation of the U.S.-China trade war but won’t close the door on joining a legal challenge if the Trump administration hikes the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs to 25 percent after March 1, CEO Matthew Shay told us Tuesday. “I’m not sure we’re ready to go there yet,” said Shay of a court challenge.

With less than a month before the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports are scheduled to rise to 25 percent (see 1812140045), resolving the U.S.-China trade dispute “is a tall order, under the best of circumstances,” blogged Baker McKenzie customs lawyer Ted Murphy Monday. “By most accounts, the two sides are still far apart” in their quest to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal by the March 2 deadline, he said. Murphy doubts “a substantive solution will be reached in the next 30 days." The "question is whether China’s offer to purchase more U.S. products” and impose “some small structural changes” in its trade practices will be sufficient to get the Trump administration to “declare victory” and again postpone the tariff hike while the two sides keep talking, he said.

With less than a month before the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports are scheduled to rise to 25 percent (see 1812140045), resolving the U.S.-China trade dispute “is a tall order, under the best of circumstances,” blogged Baker McKenzie customs lawyer Ted Murphy Monday. “By most accounts, the two sides are still far apart” in their quest to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal by the March 2 deadline, he said. Murphy doubts “a substantive solution will be reached in the next 30 days." The "question is whether China’s offer to purchase more U.S. products” and impose “some small structural changes” in its trade practices will be sufficient to get the Trump administration to “declare victory” and again postpone the tariff hike while the two sides keep talking, he said.

The National Retail Federation is optimistic about a de-escalation of the U.S.-China trade war but won’t close the door on joining a legal challenge if the Trump administration hikes the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs to 25 percent after March 1, CEO Matthew Shay told us Feb. 6. “I’m not sure we’re ready to go there yet,” Shay said of a court challenge.

Tariffs on allies make it harder to convince China to change its abuses, senators said, as members from both parties held a press conference to criticize Trump administration tariff policies. They were kicking off a lobbying effort from business owners and farmers around the country called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, which began Feb. 6.

With less than a month before the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports are scheduled to rise to 25 percent (see 1812140034), resolving the U.S.-China trade dispute “is a tall order, under the best of circumstances,” Baker McKenzie customs lawyer Ted Murphy blogged Monday. “By most accounts, the two sides are still far apart” in their quest to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal by the March 2 deadline, he said. Murphy doubts “a substantive solution will be reached in the next 30 days.” The “question is whether China’s offer to purchase more U.S. products” and impose “some small structural changes” in its trade practices will be sufficient to get the Trump administration to “declare victory” and again postpone the tariff hike while the two sides keep talking, he said.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Jan. 28 - Feb. 1 in case they were missed.

A domestic trade association filed petitions on Feb. 1 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping and countervailing duties on fabricated structural steel from Canada, Mexico and China. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on fabricated structural steel that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The petition, filed by the American Institute of Steel Construction, targets steel mill products of various shapes that have been fabricated (and typically custom-manufactured) into articles suitable for erection or assembly into a variety of structures.

“High-ranking” U.S. and China officials made progress in two days of “intense and productive negotiations” that ended Thursday in Washington toward a comprehensive trade deal, but “much work remains to be done,” said the White House. President Donald Trump regards the 90-day negotiating window to which he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in Buenos Aires for reaching a trade agreement (see 1812030002) as “a hard deadline,” it said. The U.S. will raise to 25 percent the 10 percent Section 301 tariffs now in effect on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports unless the two sides “reach a satisfactory outcome” by March 1, it said.