The office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced intention on July 15th to impose a new 25% tariff on certain products from Brazil, at the President's direction, under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. The tariff will apply to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse, on or after 12:01ET July 22. USTR states the action is justified after an investigation finding certain trade practices unreasonable and burdensome to U.S. commerce, including measures related to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair and preferential tariffs; and anti-corruption interference, among other factors. A list of covered Brazilian goods and related HTS numbers are available in this Federal Register notice.
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CBP issued updated guidance regarding new requirements related to the declaration of country of smelt and cast for certain copper products per Proclamation 11021 issued by President Trump on April 2. The proclamation requires importers to provide product details needed to identify country of smelt and cast of copper contained in certain products.
See 91 FR 18201 and CSMS 68253075.
The functionality for the acceptance of the smelt and cast fields on certain imports of copper articles will be deployed to the certification environment in ACE on July 16. The functionality in production for the acceptance of the smelt and cast fields on certain imports of copper articles will be available in ACE on July 30.
Copper Reporting of Smelt and Cast Countries
Effective July 30, imports of certain copper articles from all countries of origin (except the U.S.), shall report the primary country of smelt and country of cast, and may report the secondary country of smelt, on the entry summary line for the following HTSUS classifications: 8544.42.10; 8544.42.20; 8544.42.90; and 8544.49.10.
If the primary country of smelt, secondary country of smelt, and/or country of cast are not known, importers may report “OTH” (other).
Refer to the ACE CATAIR Entry Summary Create/Update V109 for the technical reporting instructions for the new Importer’s Additional Declaration Type Code 12 (Copper Smelt and Cast Country Detail).
The ACE CATAIR Entry Summary Error Dictionary V51 was updated with the following errors related to copper smelt and cast:
• 869 COP PRIM SMELT CNTRY CD MISSING
• 870 COP PRIM SMELT CNTRY CD UNKNOWN CNTRY
• 871 COP SEC SMELT CNTRY CD UNKNOWN CNTRY
• 872 COP RECENT CAST CNTRY CD MISSING
• 873 COP RECENT SMELT CNTRY CD UNKNOWN CNTRY
The updated version of the ACE CATAIR will be posted shortly under Draft Chapters: Future Capabilities tab on CBP.gov.
OTS will continue to monitor these evolving issues and provide updates. Please contact your OTS Sales Representative for additional information.