Canada

This client alert was originally published on May 30, 2018, and now there is an update. Today, May 31st, President Trump announced a resolution with Argentina, Brazil and Australia regarding the 232 tariffs on steel (25%) and/or aluminum (10%), but as there is no similar agreement with Canada, Mexico or the EU, the tariffs

Since this article was originally published by MSK, we have learned China filed a complaint at the WTO challenging imposition of the threatened 301 tariffs. This WTO challenge is in addition to the one previously filed challenging the 232 tariffs the U.S. imposed.

The U.S. Trade Representative (“USTR”) has prepared for publication a Federal Register

China suspended concessions  on certain U.S. goods effective April 2, 2018 See here for a list of the impacted products – 9927131

The WTO is circulating a communication from China which also lists the products against which retaliation has been taken – see China 232 Product List for more details

 

In off the record comments on March 28, 2018, an official of the Dept. of Commerce provided some clarification as to how the product exemption process will work. Of course, the starting point is if your product is subject to the steel or aluminum tariffs and is not from an exempted country, the 25% or

Since the original publication of this Alert, South Korea and the U.S. have concluded their negotiations regarding the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, and, as a result, South Korea has been permanently excluded from the steel and aluminum tariffs.

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Some events rather significant to international traders occurred in the last few days. First, on Friday,

When President Trump announced the 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariffs on March 8, 2018, he instructed the  Secretary of Commerce to issue regulations explaining how American companies could seek exclusions from those tariffs no later than March 19, 2018, and that deadline has been met.  These new regulations can be found at:  https://www.commerce.gov/sites/commerce.gov/files/federal_register_vol_83_no_53_monday_march_19_2018_12106-12112.pdf

Before

Originally published by the Journal of Commerce in March 2018

As has been widely reported, on March 8, 2018, President Trump signed one Presidential Proclamations imposing a 25% additional tariff on defined steel products, and a second one imposing an additional 10% tariff on defined aluminum products.  The only countries exempted from the outset are

The ABI programming for the new Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) classifications implementing the steel and aluminum safeguard tariffs was released earlier today by CBP.

The HTS numbers added are:

9903.80.01        STEEL PROD, NOTE 19, EX CA/M        25%

9903.85.01        ALUMINUM PROD, NOTE 19, EX CA/M    10%

with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for

Our good friend and Australian lawyer – Andrew Hudson – has published an article about the U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs with an interesting take based on current events in Australia.

Andrew’s article can be found on the Rigby Cooke website at http://www.rigbycooke.com.au/latest/new-trump-tariffs-tip-of-trade-iceberg. It has also been published in the DCN at http://www.thedcn.com.au/the-new-trump-tariffs-the-tip-of-the-trade-iceberg/ (subscription required).