For more than a year, the news about an end to the Sino-U.S. trade has fluctuated weekly, often daily, between optimism and pessimism, with a resolution one day imminent and the next remote. While tariffs are typically imposed to achieve trade-related policy objectives, President Trump\u2019s administration has been unusual in its aggressive use of tariffs to attempt to obtain concessions from the United States\u2019 trading partners on non-trade-related policy issues. These tariffs presently impose additional duties on all imaging consumables and components imported into the United States from China.<\/p>\n
A. Section 301 Tariffs on China<\/strong><\/p>\n The U.S.\u2019s most aggressive use of tariffs to achieve non-trade objectives are the tariffs levied on goods from China in 2018 under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (\u201cSection 301 tariffs\u201d). In 2017, the USTR conducted an investigation of Chinese trade practices and concluded that China:<\/p>\n To compel China to change these practices, the United States opened a trade war by imposing successive rounds of tariffs on goods imported to the U.S. from China.<\/p>\n The following statistics help to put the magnitude of the Sino-U.S. trade war in context. China is the largest export economy in the world, and the U.S. is China\u2019s largest export market. In 2016, China\u2019s exports to the U.S. represented 19% of all Chinese exports. In other words, U.S. tariffs that reduce the flow of Chinese exports have the potential to inflict significant economic harm on the Chinese manufacturers and exporters.<\/p>\n From a U.S. perspective, China is the U.S.\u2019s largest supplier of goods imports, representing 21% of all U.S. imports. In addition, it is the U.S.\u2019s third-largest export market (after Canada and Mexico). In 2016, U.S. exports to China represented 9.2% of all U.S. exports. Thus, the Section 301 tariffs impose a significant economic penalty on U.S. consumers and industrial customers who purchase imported Chinese goods and an additional penalty on U.S. producers and exporters whose sales to China have been curtailed by the retaliatory tariffs that China has imposed. On March 22, 2018, the U.S. announced plans under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to:<\/p>\n The new tariffs pertain only to imports from China to the United States. However, they apply in addition to any normal duties, antidumping and countervailing duties, or other import charges on these Chinese products. At present, the United States has imposed four successive rounds of Section 301 tariffs, which, when completely implemented in December 2019, will cover virtually all products imported into the United States from China.<\/p>\n Round 1 tariffs ($34 billion):<\/strong>\u00a0The first round of U.S. tariffs, which became effective July 6, 2018, targets $34 billion in Chinese imports. It imposes a 25% tariff on goods covered by 818 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (\u201cHTS\u201d) subheadings.<\/p>\n Round 2 tariffs ($16 billion):<\/strong>\u00a0The second round of Section 301 tariffs, which became effective August 23, 2018, targets an additional $16 billion in Chinese imports. It too imposes a 25% tariff rate and covers goods imported under an additional 279 HTS subheadings.<\/p>\n Round 3 tariffs ($200 billion):<\/strong>\u00a0The third round of Section 301 tariffs, which became effective September 24, 2018, targets an additional $200 billion in Chinese imports at an initial tariff rate of 10 percent. On May 9, 2019, the duty rate was increased to 25 percent. The third round of tariffs cover goods imported under an additional 5,745 HTS subheadings.<\/p>\n Round 4 tariffs ($300 billion)<\/strong>: On August 1, 2019, President Trump announced that the United States would impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese-made products beginning on September 1st, and suggested that the tariff rate could later be raised to 25%.<\/p>\n Extending Section 301 tariffs to this additional $300 billion worth of goods will impose tariffs on virtually all goods from China that come into the United States.<\/p>\n On August 14th, the USTR, which administers the Section 301 tariffs, announced that a portion of the tariffs, most covering consumer items like laptops and smartphones, would be delayed until December 15th so as not to interfere with Christmas season buying in the United States. The tariffs delayed until December 15th cover about $189 billion in Chinese imports. Those that took effect on September 1st cover about $111 billion.<\/p>\n B. How Section 301 Tariffs affect the importation of Chinese-origin ink and toner cartridges and components into the United States<\/strong><\/p>\n Imaging consumables are covered by the Section 301 tariffs imposed on all four rounds. In the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, imaging consumables are covered by HTS 8443.99, which is divided into four main sections. Each of these sections covers both finished ink and toner cartridges and cartridge components:<\/p>\n In addition, circuit boards used in ink and toner cartridges are classified under HTS 8542.31.00.01<\/p>\n Here is how Section 301 tariffs apply to each of these product categories:<\/p>\n Printer-only cartridges and components that are classified under HTS 8443.99.20 are subject to Round 1 of the Section 301 tariffs, which became effective July 6, 2018, at a duty rate of 25% ad valorem. C. Exclusion requests<\/strong><\/p>\n D. Mexican Tariffs<\/strong><\/p>\n In late May, President Trump announced that the U.S. would impose broad tariffs on goods from Mexico unless Mexico agrees to do more to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the United States. This was another dramatic use of tariffs to achieve a non-trade-related policy objective. The tariffs were to begin at 5% and to climb eventually to 25%. Within a matter of days, it was announced that the U.S. and Mexico had reached an agreement that eliminated the need for tariffs, at least for the time being. If tariffs on Mexico were to be imposed, that would seriously disrupt the business of U.S.-based cartridge producers and resellers who import cartridge components and finished cartridges from Mexico. For more than a year, the news about an end to the Sino-U.S. trade has fluctuated weekly, often daily, between optimism and pessimism, with a resolution one day imminent and the next remote. While tariffs are typically imposed to achieve trade-related policy objectives, President Trump\u2019s administration has been unusual in its aggressive use of tariffs […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.acooffice.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nThe U.S. believes that it can win a trade war of attrition because its economy is stronger than China\u2019s. China believes it must defend its trade policies and its increasing stature in the international trade economy and in geopolitics. While the trade war plays out, consumers and producers in both countries are suffering.<\/p>\n\n
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\nPrinter-only components that are classified under HTS 8443.99.25 are subject to Round 4 of the Section 301 tariffs, which became effective September 1, 2019, at a duty rate of 10% ad valorem.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n\n
\nwhich are subject to Section 301 tariffs at a rate of 10% ad valorem.<\/li>\n\n
\nIf granted, these exclusion requests apply not just to the applicant\u2019s products but to any product that fits the product description in the exclusion notice, regardless of the identity of the producer or importer. Because exclusion requests are granted on a product-specific basis, a third party that does not obtain its own exclusion may, according to USTR, \u201cstill benefit from a product exclusion if a similar product is granted an exclusion.\u201d In other words, it is possible that the importer of, for example, a remanufactured \u2013 or possibly even of a new-built compatible \u2013 Canon toner cartridge could benefit from any exclusion order that Canon eventually obtains.
\nFour companies that filed exclusion requests covering printer-only cartridges and\/or assemblies had those requests denied: Epson America, Inc. (six requests), HP Inc. (seventeen requests), Xante Corporation (four requests), and Xerox Corporation (four requests). The Epson requests were denied by CBP on \u201cadministrability\u201d grounds after having been preliminarily granted by USTR as having satisfied all the substantive criteria for exclusion. Two companies that filed exclusion requests covering fax machine-only cartridges and\/or components, Canon and Konica Minolta (one each), had those requests denied.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
\nDisclaimer: This article is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for legal advice on any particular set of facts. Anyone with a specific question about compliance with the Section 301 tariffs should consult a customs attorney or a customs broker.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"