Steel fence posts assembled in Mexico are actually products of the U.S. and are not subject to the Section 232 tariffs, CBP said in a Feb. 27 ruling. The ruling was in response to a request from Alex Romero of A.F. Romero & Co. Customs Brokers on behalf of Merchant Metals that asked CBP to weigh in on whether steel fence posts sent to Mexico for assembly operations could be returned under heading 9802 and whether the return entry triggers Section 232 liability. CBP said the Mexican processing doesn't create a substantial transformation of the posts.
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, who defeated a nine-term Republican incumbent last fall, is clear that NAFTA has benefited her district in the Houston area and the whole state of Texas. But Fletcher, who has been chosen as a co-chair of the trade task force in the New Democrats caucus, said she's not being urged by constituents to get NAFTA's replacement ratified as soon as possible.
President Donald Trump denied he said Mexico has a year to improve drug interdiction (see 1904040030), but, for the second day in a row, he suggested Mexico is improving its control of migration, so he won't need to close the border soon. "I don't think we'll ever have to close the border because the penalty of tariffs on cars coming into the United States from Mexico at 25 percent will be massive," Trump told White House reporters a few hours after he made the one-year remark, on April 4.
The Mexican undersecretary for North American affairs, who was the current administrator's chief negotiator in the NAFTA renegotiations, said as he meets with Democrats in Congress, "we are making progress" in convincing them that the labor reforms under consideration in Mexico are very strong. Jesus Seade, speaking at a press conference April 4 at the Mexican Embassy, added, "It doesn't mean that anybody asked, 'Seade, where do I sign?'"
The Trump administration clearly underestimated the number of product exclusion requests that would be filed under the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Matthew Borman, during an April 2 Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Commerce Department’s 2019 budget request. Borman said Commerce’s prediction was based on the number of exclusion requests it received during a “steel safeguard action” taken during 2001. Borman said that about 6,000 requests were submitted then. “Obviously there turned out to be quite a few more in the current process,” Borman said, adding that Commerce has processed more than 45,000 of the estimated 85,000 exclusion requests it has received.
Pro-trade Democrats said that given the barrier of Section 232 tariffs, the fact that Mexico has not yet passed labor law reform, and other concerns, it's premature to be talking about the timing of a vote in the House of Representatives to ratify the new NAFTA. The president of the New Democrats, as well as two other trade leaders in the pro-growth caucus, talked to reporters April 2 after meeting with Canada's U.S. Ambassador David MacNaughton at the Capitol.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, complained again April 2 that President Donald Trump doesn't understand that to get the new NAFTA ratified, he has to lift tariffs on Mexican and Canadian aluminum and steel. "The president has to come to the conclusion," he told reporters on a conference call, "and I don’t know why it’s taking him so long, because he wants U.S.-Mexico-Canada [Agreement] to get through. It’s a real victory for him. It’s a real campaign promise kept. So why the slow movement on it? Get rid of them!"
Steel of West Virginia submitted a petition to CBP asking it to reclassify steel parts so that the parts face Section 232 tariffs upon import, CBP said in a notice. The petitioner, which makes steel shapes for sale to forklift truck operators, seeks a new classification for “incomplete steel mast rails and finger bars,” the agency. Specifically, the parts should be classified in subheading 7216.50.00, which covers “Angles, shapes and sections of iron or nonalloy steel: Other angles, shapes and sections, not further worked than hot-rolled, hotdrawn or extruded.” That subheading is duty-free but is covered by the Section 232 tariffs.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 25-29 in case they were missed.
Tariffs levied in the name of national security, whether under Section 232 or other statutes, could only last 120 days without affirmative congressional approval under a proposed bill from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. This approach is similar to what's being considered in the Senate Finance Committee, but this bill, introduced March 27, also provides more information and consultation for Section 301 tariffs, such as those currently applied to Chinese goods. Under Section 301, the International Trade Commission would receive descriptions about what products will face tariffs, and at what rates, how long a tariff would last, and the ITC would produce a report on the impact on the economy. The bill would allow Congress to pass a joint resolution of disapproval of these tariffs, but that vote could be vetoed by the president. The bill is called the ‘‘Reclaiming Congressional Trade Authority Act of 2019.’’