Tariffs/Trade Policy

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The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released notice of its fifth batch of China Section 301 product exclusion approvals that will relieve impacted U.S. importers from the 25 percent tariff implemented on certain imports from China July 6, 2018. These approved exclusions cover 464 exclusion requests and are established in two different…

On May 30, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a Statement Regarding Emergency Measures to Address the Border Crisis in which he announced that his administration would be imposing a 5 percent tariff on all goods entering the United States from Mexico beginning on June 10, 2019. Stating that “the United States has suffered the severe…

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that it is extending the amount of time certain goods exported from China will have to enter the United States before an additional Section 301 tariff increase from 10 percent to 25 percent is imposed. As we reported on May 9, President Donald Trump…

In a filing with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seeking emergency clearance for an information collection and form approval, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) formally indicated that it is “establishing a process by which U.S. stakeholders can request the exclusion of particular products classified within a covered tariff subheading from…

On May 17, 2019, the United States, Canada and Mexico concluded an agreement in which the United States agreed to remove the Section 232 tariffs for steel and aluminum imports from those countries and Canada and Mexico agreed to remove all retaliatory tariffs imposed on U.S. goods. Accordingly, President Donald Trump issued proclamations declaring that…

On May 16, 2019, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation reducing Section 232 tariffs on steel imports from Turkey from 50 percent to 25 percent, which had been in effect since August 2018 (see Trump and Trade Update of August 17, 2018). This tariff decrease will become effective May 21, 2019, at 12:01 a.m.…

President Donald Trump today announced that his administration would delay for six months any action on the determination of the Department of Commerce (Commerce) in the Section 232 national security investigation into imports of automobiles and automobile parts. This investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 was self-initiated by Commerce in…

After trade negotiations between China and the United States faltered last week, China announced on May 13, 2019, that it would retaliate against the United States’ increase in Section 301 tariffs on certain Chinese products from 10 percent to 25 percent (see Trump and Trade Update of May 9, 2019). China’s Ministry of Finance announced that as of June 1, 2019, it will increase the tariffs on imports of U.S. goods valued at approximately $60 billion in response to the increase in tariffs implemented by the United States. While not adding goods to its list at this time, China will be increasing the tariffs it imposed on over 5,000 U.S. products on September 24, 2018 (see Trump and Trade Update of September 19, 2018). With the May 13 announcement, the Ministry of Finance indicated that on June 1, 2019, 2,493 U.S. products will now be subject to a 25 percent tariff; 1,078 products will be increased to a 20 percent tariff; and 974 products will be subject to a 10 percent tariff. A 5 percent tariff will remain in place on 595 U.S. products. (Note: All of the linked documents related to the announcement by China’s Ministry of Finance are in Chinese. As soon as English translations become available, they will be posted.)

On March 7, 2019, Cambria Company LLC filed petitions on behalf of the domestic industry with the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (Commission) seeking antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of certain quartz surface products from India and Turkey. According to the petitions, quartz surface product imports from these two countries are being sold at less than fair value in the United States and receive countervailable subsidies, causing material injury and threatening further material injury to the U.S. industry if duties are not imposed.

On the same day that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) raised the Section 301 tariff rate to 25 percent on imports from China valued at $200 billion that had been subject to a 10 percent tariff rate since September 24, 2018, the USTR also announced its fourth batch of products to be…