On the first day of tariff collection for the third phase of the U.S.-China trade war, another 5,745 products became subject to 10 percent higher levies, with the threat of an additional 15 percent levy on those products following in a little more than three months.

With the “great news” that Element Electronics persuaded the Trump administration to remove LCD panels and motherboards under the 9013.80.90 and 8529.90.13 line items from the third tranche of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs set to take effect Monday (see 1809180020), Element’s Winnsboro, South Carolina, LCD TV assembly factory “will remain open!” it emailed retail customers Walmart and Target Tuesday. “Thanks again for supporting Element -- the only major television brand assembling TVs in America.” Element threatened to shutter the factory and terminate the remaining 125 jobs there if tariffs on the components it sources from China had gone through because the prohibitively higher costs would have forced the company to import finished TVs from China rather than assemble them in Winnsboro (see 1809130047). "We are working on plans now," Element General Counsel David Baer told us Thursday when asked if the company will restore the Winnsboro workforce to its pre-tariff levels of 300-plus employees. Winnsboro sustained no serious flooding or damage from Florence, and "everyone is safe," though "we got a bunch of rain," said Baer.

Importers of products covered by the new third set of 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on China will file under two new tariff provisions in Chapter 99 beginning at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Sept. 24, according to a notice published Sept. 21 by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. New subheading 9903.88.03 will cover the vast majority of new products subject to tariffs that fall in 8-digit subheadings fully subject to Section 301 tariffs. New subheading 9903.88.04, on the other hand, covers a set of 11 8-digit subheadings that are only partially covered and have exceptions at the 10-digit level.

With the “great news” that Element Electronics persuaded the Trump administration to remove liquid crystal display (LCD) panels and motherboards under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule 9013.80.90 and 8529.90.13 headings from the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs set to take effect Sept. 24 (see 1809170051), Element’s Winnsboro, South Carolina, LCD TV assembly factory “will remain open!,” it emailed retail customers Walmart and Target. “Thanks again for supporting Element -- the only major television brand assembling TVs in America.” Element had said in public hearings that it would be forced to shutter the factory and terminate the remaining 126 jobs there if tariffs on the components it sources from China went through because the prohibitively higher costs would have forced the company to import finished TVs from China rather than assemble them in Winnsboro.

China, which previously asked for consultations with the U.S. at the World Trade Organization over steel and aluminum tariffs and two previous rounds of Section 301 tariffs (see 1808270020), asked on Sept.18 for consultations on tariffs that will be levied next week on $200 billion in Chinese goods. As with the previous cases, China says the measures violate WTO rules by imposing higher tariffs on China than on other countries, by exceeding U.S.-agreed bound rates, and because the U.S. did not go through the dispute resolution system at the WTO before acting.

The two rounds of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs implemented July 6 and Aug. 23 account for less than 10 percent of the shipment volume FedEx does in the “China-U.S. lane bidirectionally,” and that volume generates about 2 percent of total revenue for the “whole enterprise,” said Raj Subramaniam, FedEx chief marketing and communications officer, on a Monday earnings call. New tariffs on the $200 billion worth of imports taking effect Sept. 24 (see 1809180020) are expected to raise the impact to a quarter of the commerce FedEx does between the two countries, he said. “The uncertainty around the issue and the potential for additional tariffs is affecting the market and we're beginning to see some of the economic activity in China starting to moderate as a result of that,” said Subramaniam about an hour before President Donald Trump announced the third tranche of tariffs would take effect next Monday (see 1809170052). FedEx hasn’t yet seen “any significant shifts in the customer supply chain” as a result of the tariffs, he said. “However, if the situation continues for any amount of time, we do expect customers to diversify their supply chains and perhaps some of the trade patterns might change.” Subramaniam is confident “the scale and flexibility of FedEx will enable us to deliver strong results in enterprise despite any uncertainty on trades and tariffs,” he said.

That the Trump administration's Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports take effect Sept. 24 (see 1809170052) gives CTA extraordinarily little time to weigh a court challenge blocking the duties if it's to act before they become effective next week (see 1809170022). The quick turnaround time, published in a notice that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released late Monday, bore out CTA member companies’ worries the administration would waste little time enacting the tariffs soon after the comments period expired Sept. 6 (see 1809100056).

The two rounds of Section 301 tariffs, implemented July 6 and Aug. 23, account for less than 10 percent of the shipment volume FedEx does in the “China-U.S. lane bidirectionally,” and that volume represents about 2 percent of total revenue for the “whole enterprise,” said Raj Subramaniam, FedEx chief marketing and communications officer, on a Sept. 17 earnings call. New tariffs on the $200 billion worth of imports would raise the impact to a quarter of the commerce FedEx does between China and the U.S., he said. “The uncertainty around the issue and the potential for additional tariffs is affecting the market and we're beginning to see some of the economic activity in China starting to moderate as a result of that,” Subramaniam said about an hour before President Donald Trump announced the third tranche of tariffs would take effect Sept. 24. FedEx hasn’t yet seen “any significant shifts in the customer supply chain” as a result of the tariffs, he said. “However, if the situation continues for any amount of time, we do expect customers to diversify their supply chains and perhaps some of the trade patterns might change.” Subramaniam is confident that “the scale and flexibility of FedEx will enable us to deliver strong results in enterprise despite any uncertainty on trades and tariffs,” he said.

That the Section 301 tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports take effect Sept. 24 gives potential litigants little time to weigh a court challenge blocking the duties if they are going to act before they become effective (see 1809170051). The extremely quick turnaround time, published in a notice that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released late on Sept. 17, bore out worries that the Trump administration would release its order imposing the tariffs soon after the comments period expired Sept. 6.

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 10-14 in case they were missed.