Tech interests virtually struck out in their attempts to persuade U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to spare their products and components from a second tranche of 25 percent Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on imports from China. Despite heavy industry lobbying to exclude semiconductors and other key parts from the second round of new levies, the list Lighthizer released Tuesday contains 279 tariff lines of goods worth about $16 billion in trade value, a mere 2 percent reduction from 284 lines in the originally proposed list released June 15 (see 1806150030). The new tariffs will take effect Aug. 23, said Lighthizer, who soon will announce a "process" for seeking exclusions from the new duties.

Posted comments on the Trump administration’s proposed third round of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports surpassed 600 Tuesday in docket USTR-2018-0026. Virtually all were filed by the original July 27 deadline for requests to appear at four days of public hearings beginning Aug. 20.

The Trump administration’s proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the U.S. under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.62.00 subheading targets equipment “critical for the build-out of high-speed broadband internet” and related IoT technologies, said the Telecommunications Industry Association in comments posted Saturday in docket USTR-2018-0026. The comments were filed July 27, when 10 percent tariffs were still on the table, days before U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced he will “consider” hiking the duties to 25 percent (see 1808010018).

The Trump administration’s proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the U.S. under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.62.00 subheading targets equipment “critical for the build-out of high-speed broadband internet” and related IoT technologies, said the Telecommunications Industry Association in comments posted Saturday in docket USTR-2018-0026. The comments were filed July 27, when 10 percent tariffs were still on the table, days before U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced he will “consider” hiking the duties to 25 percent (see 1808010018).

The Trump administration’s proposed Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the U.S. under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.62.00 subheading targets equipment “critical for the build-out of high-speed broadband internet” and related IoT technologies, said the Telecommunications Industry Association in comments posted Saturday in docket USTR-2018-0026. The comments were filed July 27, when 10 percent tariffs were still on the table, days before U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer announced he will “consider” hiking the duties to 25 percent (see 1808010018).

International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 30 - Aug. 3 in case they were missed.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative released the final list for the second tranche of Section 301 tariffs on Aug. 7. CBP will begin the collection an extra 25 percent in tariffs on those goods from China starting Aug. 23, the USTR said in its announcement.

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.

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.”