Ascent Global Logistics Blog

The USTR (United States Trade Representative) has announced that on October 31, 2019, it will begin to accept tariff exclusion requests for Chinese imports that are subject to an additional 15 percent tariff (List 4), which went into effect on September 1, 2019. 

Exclusion requests will be received via the USTR exclusion request processing portal. Details regarding the application process will be published in the Federal Register next week. 

U.S. tariffs totaling to $7.5 billion will be enacted on the European Union today. Producers of specialty food products such as Italian Parmesan, French wine and Spanish olives have been put on the bargaining table as recompense for the illegal EU Airbus subsidies reported earlier this month. 

In case you missed it, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is implementing a new sulfur emission rule in 2020. This is expected to directly impact fuel, but it could have much further impacts across the shipping industry. With just over two months until implementation, our team is here to help supply chain managers plan for the impending changes approaching with the New Year.

The U.S. administration has halted trade negotiations and doubled Turkish steel tariffs in response to Turkey's advance into Syria on Monday, October 14. The proposed $100 billion trade deal with the country is on hold due to the advance. 

The current Miscellaneous Trade Bill (MTB) (H.R. 4318) is in place through December 31, 2020. However, the USITC is opening the new MTB Portal this Friday, October 11, 2019 to allow U.S. manufacturers and importers an opportunity to include products on the list for consideration over the next year.

This week, the United States was granted permission by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to impose up to $7.5 billion of annual tariffs on goods from the European Union. This action provides the U.S. administration with the ability to tax wine, airplanes and other goods exported from Europe to the United States.

On September 3, 2019, a Federal Register notice was published, stating that due to the ongoing challenges being addressed between the governments of the United States and China, Tranche 1, 2 and 3 would be increasing from 25 percent to 30 percent, effective October 1, 2019. At this time, it was announced that there would be a request for Public Comments through September 20, 2019.

Please note that Hurricane Dorian's landfall continues to impact port, rail and over-the-road operations across the Southeast. Below are the latest updates:

The Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (TFTEA) is an authorization of CBP’s trade authority and was enforced to create an environment for fair, honest and competitive trade in the United States. Section 906 of TFTEA made a comprehensive set of changes to drawback claim filing. Even though TFTEA was only signed into law in 2016, it is necessary to know these recent changes since it greatly effects the drawback application process.

Breaking News: Product Exclusions Granted for List 3

On August 5, 2019 the USTR (United States Trade Representative) announced that product exclusions have been approved for S301 List 3 duties. The product exclusions are broken into ten new product-specific descriptions such as certain plastic containers, pet cages, shopping carts and inflatable kayaks and boats.