CBP plans to issue a CSMS message either Aug. 29 or Aug. 30 on the coming Section 301 tariffs from tranche 4 that are scheduled to take effect Sept. 1, a CBP official said during an Aug. 29 call with software developers. The agency also will issue another CSMS message on how to file entries with goods that are subject to more than one trade remedy, similar to another CSMS message issued last year, the official said. CBP will be "working with our outage window this weekend to implement and update the databases and put in the proper validations so that everything will be ready for 9/1," the official said.
Almost half of companies that responded to the U.S.-China Business Council's annual survey on the business climate in China said they have lost sales in China since the trade war began. The most common reason is because of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports to China, according to these 100 multinational firms based in the U.S. Another third said they lost sales because of U.S. tariffs.
Despite President Donald Trump’s remarks earlier this month that he delayed the List 4B Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods to Dec. 15 so that they wouldn’t hurt consumers during the holiday shopping season, “a large portion of holiday merchandise will still be hit by September and October tariff increases at an even higher rate than was initially anticipated,” the Americans for Free Trade Coalition wrote the president Wednesday. The coalition urged Trump to delay putting the 15 percent List 4A tariffs into effect Sunday and avoid hiking the previous three rounds of tariffs by 5 percentage points on Oct. 1 as “the gift you can give American families this holiday season.”
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced Aug. 29 that it is seeking comments through Regulations.gov on the efficacy of increasing Section 301 tariffs from 25 percent to 30 percent in order to convince China to stop trade abuses. The office also invites businesses and trade groups to explain if the increase on any particular product would cause disproportionate harm to U.S. consumers or businesses. Comments are due by Sept. 20; the increase is scheduled to take effect Oct. 1.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will publish official notification in Friday's Federal Register that the List 4 tariffs will increase to 15 percent from 10 percent when they take effect Sunday and again Dec. 15, said a prepublication notice Tuesday. President Donald Trump ordered the increase last week after China announced retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion in U.S. goods (see 1908230006). "China’s most recent response of announcing a new tariff increase on U.S. goods has shown that the current action being taken is no longer appropriate," said the notice of the former 10 percent List 4 rate. USTR had said it also will launch a new "notice and comment period" to raise the previous three rounds of tariffs to 30 percent from 25 percent, but that action wasn't covered in Tuesday's prepublication notice.
Adrienne Braumiller and George Alfonso will offer trade-related lobbying through a new lobbying firm founded by the pair, Braumiller said in an Aug. 26 email. Braumiller, who started the Braumiller Law Group, and Alfonso, who also founded The Law Offices of S. George Alfonso, said the two will partner to create a new lobbying firm called Reigncore. The pair "have combined their unique talents and experiences in international trade and artful persuasion to form the cornerstone of Reigncore, in order to provide the consulting and lobbying services best suited for each client’s specific objectives and goals," Braumiller said in the email. Alfonso will be president and Braumiller will be CEO, though neither will "provide legal counsel or representation," Reigncore said on its website. Lobbying areas include the new NAFTA, Section 301 tariff exclusions, and export control reform efforts, it said.
Derek Scissors, a China scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has been arguing for decoupling from China for years. He says whether President Donald Trump wins a second term, or a Democrat replaces him, it's likely tech companies will have to change their supply chains and reverse the international approach to research and development. Scissors said in an interview that while apparel and other low-value goods manufacturers were already moving to cheaper countries in Asia, consumer technology firms were happy in China before the trade war began. "You could easily get a Democratic administration that wants to get tech out of China," he said. "Biden's people say they want that."
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 19-23 in case they were missed.
The manufacturing of major Roomba robotic vacuum subassemblies that occurs in Malaysia is enough for the vacuum to be considered of Malaysian origin, CBP said in a July 31 ruling. Sandler Travis lawyer Paula Connelly, representing iRobot, sought CBP's input on the country of origin. The agency also said the retail set that includes the vacuum is of Malaysia. The vacuum is classified in subheading 8508.11.0000, which was included in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs on goods from China.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will publish a notice in the Federal Register Aug. 30 that says that List 4 products under the Section 301 action will face an additional 15 percent tariff, not 10 percent, as earlier announced. President Donald Trump had tweeted this change four days ago (see 1908230059). The change in the rate does not affect the dates the goods will face the tariff. One group of products, nearly 3,800 8-digit tariff lines, will be taxed starting Sept. 1; consumer electronics largely will wait until Dec. 15.