Consideration for New List of Tariffs on $300B Worth of China Imports Plus USTR Request for Co

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - May 17, 2019 - PRLog -- A request for comments has been issued in correlation with a new tranche of proposed tariffs as written in the Federal Register (https://www.butzel.com/assets/htmldocuments/uploads/2019/Client%20Alerts/USTR_notice_2019_0004.pdf) on Wednesday, May 15, 2019, valued at an additional $300 Billion.

The 4th tranche does however contain items not mentioned in the previous 3 lists announced in Section 301. This notice offers procedural steps for comments and/or objections to the tariffs proposed in the new tranche.

Deadlines for client submissions and requests are as follows:

· June 10, 2019 – Deadline to request to testify

· June 17, 2019 – Set hearing date

· June 24, 2019 – Deadline for written comments submission

Timeline

An investigation concerning the Trade Act of 1974 [under Section 301, specifically] and the validity of certain trade practices assumed by the Chinese government went into effect in August 2017, officially initiated by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

The aforementioned investigations led to the tariff implementation of the following 3 tranches:

· Tranches 1 and 2 – 25% on $50 Billion in Chinese imports

· Tranche 3 – 10% on $200 Billion in Chinese imports

The third tranche was initially set to increase to 25% on March 2, 2019. This date was pushed back on March 5, 2019 and officially took effect at 12:01 a.m. EST on May 10, 2019.

Exclusions and Implementations

Due to the quick nature of consideration currently being given to the 4th tranche and short notice provided to all United States Importers, the transitional integration, according to this notice (https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/enforcement/301Inves...) issued by the USTR, states that, "products of China that are covered by the September 2018 action and that were exported to the United States prior to May 10, 2019, are not subject to the additional duty of 25 percent, as long as such products are entered into the United States prior to June 1, 2019."

Subsequently and in direct correlation with the USTR regarding impending tariff implementation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a statement specifically to importers, writing that:

"For subject goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on May 10, 2019, and exported to the United Stats on or after May 10, 2019, report the following HTS numbers and duty rates:

HTS: 9903.88.03 and 9903.88.04

Duty Rate: 25 percent

For subject goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on May 10, 2019, and before June 1, 2019, and exported to the United States before May 10, 2019, report the following HTS number and duty rate:

HTS: 9903.88.09

Duty Rate: 10 percent"

4th Tranche

Bilateral negotiations between the U.S. and China are on-going with hopes that a deal will be reached in the foreseeable future. Until then, if you have any questions or request guidance on comment submissions and/or exclusion appeals regarding the 4th tranche under consideration, please contact us HERE (mailto:customerservice@clnusa.com).