Written comments and post-hearing rebuttals are due Sept. 6 on the third round of the Trump administration’s proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday he will “consider” hiking the duties to 25 percent from 10 percent (see 1808010018), said his office in a Friday "extended comment period" notice to be published Tuesday in the Federal Register. The agency scrapped its original Aug. 17 deadline for written submissions, extending it to Sept. 6, the same day post-hearing rebuttals are due, having been extended from Aug. 30. It also extended to Aug. 13 the deadline that expired July 27 for filing written requests to appear at four days of public hearings on the proposed tariffs. The scheduled Aug. 20 start date of the hearings “has not changed,” but the hearings may be extended beyond their current Aug. 23 conclusion, “depending on the number of additional interested persons who request to appear,” said the notice. “I have not heard about any additional days added to the schedule for the public testimony,” David Cohen, a trade expert with Sandler Travis, emailed us Friday. “Perhaps before deciding to do so, they will wait until the August 13th deadline to evaluate how many requests ultimately get filed before deciding about expanding the number of days.” Even with hard restrictions limiting each witness to five minutes of oral testimony, it remains to be seen how Lighthizer’s office can possibly accommodate so many witnesses in just four days of hearings, since well more than 400 had filed requests to appear in docket USTR-2018-0026 through Friday, the vast majority saying they want to testify against the tariffs.

Strategies for reducing the financial exposure to Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports (see 1808030002) were top of mind on Universal Electronics and GoPro earnings calls Thursday evening. Universal is developing plans to "mitigate" the cost of the tariffs by "gradually" shifting production of its "highest-priority or highest-volume" goods "out of China and into existing facilities that we have in Mexico or Brazil,” said CEO Paul Arling. It’s also exploring Vietnam as a possible "manufacturing alternative,” he said. The “vast majority” of Universal’s remote controls are manufactured in Chinese factories that Universal acquired in 2010 and owns and operates, and it imports those remotes to the U.S. under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8543.70.99 subheading, said Arling in comments prepared for Universal's testimony against the tariffs at a July 24 public hearing on round two of the Trump administration's proposed duties (see 1807230032). Shifting production away from China “will take months to complete, which means that we may incur additional costs during the transition as we expect some of these additional tariffs to be implemented somewhere in late September or probably into October,” said Arling on the call, saying it’s “difficult to know” for sure. The tariff situation “is obviously fluid, and we expect to react appropriately and as quickly as we can,” he said. GoPro “to date” has escaped the tariffs, said CEO Nicholas Woodman. If the situation changes, Woodman thinks GoPro would be able to shift production easily to “two locations” he didn’t name that wouldn’t have tariff exposure, he said. “Frankly, there may even be reasons to go to these regions even for cost benefits outside of protecting ourselves against tariffs,” he said. “So as we continue to look for ways to operate our business more efficiently and drive costs down, this is something that the team is looking at.”

China urges the U.S. “to adopt a correct attitude" on trade relations between the two countries and not try to "blackmail China because it will not work,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a Beijing news conference Thursday, reacting to the Trump administration’s announcement it will “consider” hiking the latest round of proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent (see 1808010069). China also urges the U.S. “to return to rationality and refrain from acting impulsively, otherwise they will end up hurting themselves,” he said.

China urges the U.S. “to adopt a correct attitude" on trade relations between the two countries and not try to "blackmail China because it will not work,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a Beijing news conference Thursday, reacting to the Trump administration’s announcement it will “consider” hiking the latest round of proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent (see 1808010069). China also urges the U.S. “to return to rationality and refrain from acting impulsively, otherwise they will end up hurting themselves,” he said.

China urges the U.S. “to adopt a correct attitude" on trade relations between the two countries and not try to "blackmail China because it will not work,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a Beijing news conference Thursday, reacting to the Trump administration’s announcement it will “consider” hiking the latest round of proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent (see 1808010069). China also urges the U.S. “to return to rationality and refrain from acting impulsively, otherwise they will end up hurting themselves,” he said.

Fitbit is “navigating a number of different paths” to reduce or eliminate its exposure to the Trump administration’s latest round of proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, said Chief Financial Officer Ron Kisling on a Wednesday-evening earnings call. Fitbit uses Chinese contract manufacturers to produce its devices, and tariffs would increase the bill of materials costs of goods it imports to the U.S., said Kisling.

Fitbit is “navigating a number of different paths” to reduce or eliminate its exposure to the Trump administration’s latest round of proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, said Chief Financial Officer Ron Kisling on a Wednesday-evening earnings call. Fitbit uses Chinese contract manufacturers to produce its devices, and tariffs would increase the bill of materials costs of goods it imports to the U.S., said Kisling.

China responded to proposed U.S. tariffs on $200 billion worth of goods under Section 301 with a new tariff threat of its own on Aug. 3. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced plans to add tariffs of between 5 percent and 25 percent on 5,207 items, said to account for about $60 billion worth of goods from the U.S. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is considering imposing tariffs of 25 percent on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods (see 1808010070). "The US measures have deviated from the consensus of the two sides, leading to an escalation of trade friction between China and the United States, serious violations of relevant rules of the World Trade Organization, and damage to our national interests and people's interests," the Ministry of Commerce said, according to an unofficial translation.

Tariffs "show up as a tax on the consumer and wind up resulting in lower economic growth” that can sometimes bring about "significant risk of unintended consequences,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in Q&A on the company’s quarterly earnings call on July 31. Several trade agreements “are in need of modernizing,” but in most situations, “tariffs are not the approach to doing that,” Cook said. Risks of macroeconomic issues such as an economic slowdown or currency fluctuations related to tariffs are difficult to quantify, “and we're not even trying to,” Cook said. None of Apple’s products was affected by the U.S. tariff on steel and aluminum, which took effect in June, nor two other Section 301 lists totaling about $50 billion in goods from China that were implemented.

President Donald Trump directed U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to "consider" raising the third round of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports to 25 percent from 10 percent, said Lighthizer Wednesday. Increasing the rate of the tariffs is intended to give the administration "additional options to encourage China to change its harmful policies and behavior and adopt policies that will lead to fairer markets and prosperity for all of our citizens," said Lighthizer. The Chinese embassy in Washington didn't comment right away.