Turkey will reduce import tariffs on 22 U.S. products in response to the U.S.’s May 16 decision to cut tariffs on Turkish steel imports, Turkey’s Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan announced May 22 on Twitter. Pekcan said Turkey will reduce tariffs from $521.2 million to $260.6 million on certain U.S. imports after the U.S. announced it decreased tariffs on Turkish iron and steel from 50 percent to 25 percent. The U.S. also said in its announcement that it was terminating Turkey’s eligibility for benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences. “We’ll keep working on eradicating all obstacles to our bilateral trade and achieving 75 billion USD trade volume target set by our Presidents,” Pekcan said. The 22 U.S. products affected by Turkey's tariff reduction include passenger cars, alcohol, tobacco, cosmetics and polyvinyl chloride, Reuters reported May 21, saying that Turkey plans to cut in half the tariff rates on at least those five products and lower the rates on other goods. The new tariff rates will take effect this week, Reuters said.
Brazil is temporarily lowering tariffs to zero percent on 315 capital goods and information and telecommunications technology goods under its Ex-Tarifario regime, according to a May 9 notice in the Brazilian Diario Oficial. The goods, classified in chapters 82, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 90 of the Brazilian tariff schedule, will remain duty free through Dec. 31, 2020, said the notice, which took effect May 13. The goods had been subject to tariff rates of 12 percent to 18 percent, according to a report in Brazilian news magazine Istoe. Brazil also established a tariff-rate quota allowing 6,000 tons of vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate co-polymers classified under Brazilian subheading 3904.30.00 to enter at a 2 percent duty for a period of 12 months, with out-of-quota merchandise entering at the regular rate of 14 percent, according to an alert from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The Ex-Tarifario system allows for temporarily duty free treatment for capital and ICT goods not made in Brazil, in a manner similar to the U.S. Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 13-17 in case they were missed.
An agricultural exporter recently joined a Supreme Court challenge of the constitutionality of Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum imports. Basrai Farms says the brunt of retaliatory tariffs imposed worldwide in response to the U.S. tariffs has fallen on the agriculture industry, and that the Supreme Court should find Section 232 unconstitutional because President Donald Trump was required to consider these broader effects when imposing the tariffs.
The Trump administration's decision to examine emerging technologies as candidates for export controls could cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars and threaten thousands of jobs, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a new report. If substantial export controls are enacted, the report warns, firms “could lose $14.1 [billion] to $56.3 billion in export sales over five years, with missed export opportunities threatening from 18,000 to 74,000 jobs.”
Canada and Mexico each on May 20 ended their retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to the end of U.S. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products from the two countries (see 1905170058). General safeguard duties set by each country remain in place but don’t affect U.S. exports.
New U.S. sanctions on China in response to the country’s oppression of Uighurs could be effective, but there’s a risk of retaliation, experts said while speaking at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing. Uighurs are an officially recognized ethnic minority group in China and other parts of Asia, descended from ancient tribes in Mongolia.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson sidestepped questions at a Beijing news conference May 17 about media reports suggesting new U.S.-China trade talks are off the table for now. Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping “have maintained contact through various means,” the spokesperson said. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment. The U.S. and China “intend to continue further discussions,” a USTR notice in the Federal Register said, officially proposing the 25 percent Section 301 tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods not previously dutied. Requests to appear at public hearings on the proposed List 4 tariffs are due June 10 in docket USTR–2019–0004 at regulations.gov, and written comments are due June 17, the same day the hearings are set to begin. Post-hearing rebuttal comments are due seven days after the hearings end.
China’s May 13 announcement of additional tariffs on U.S. imports is expected to impact more than 300 U.S. agricultural products that were valued at about $3 billion in 2017, according to a May 17 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. The products affected “encompass a broad range of categories,” USDA said, including “live animals and animal products, horticultural products, grains and oilseeds, food ingredients, prepared foods, wine and distilled spirits, and sweeteners.” Combined with earlier tariff increases announced by China since April 2018, “this brings the total number of U.S. agricultural and related products targeted” by China to over 1,000 products valued at about $22.6 billion in 2017, USDA said. USDA urges U.S. exporters to “check with their local importers to verify the changes in tariff treatment.”
The European Union extended sanctions against Syria for one year, until June 1, 2020, the EU Council said in a May 17 notice. The sanctions include an oil embargo, restrictions on “certain investments," a freeze on Syrian central bank assets "held in the EU" and export restrictions on "equipment and technology" that could be used for “internal repression” and the “monitoring or interception” of internet or phone communications, the notice said. The EU Council also removed sanctions on five deceased people and two entities, one because it “ceased to exist” and another because “there were no longer grounds to keep it under restrictive measures,” the notice said. The move came about a week after the Trump administration announced it is extending U.S. sanctions against Syria (see 1905100018).