Second round of China tariffs to hit August 23

USTR finalizes 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese goods.    The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative finalized a second tranche of 25 percent tariffs to be imposed on China following Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, deleting intermodal shipping containers and four other tariff lines from an initial list of 284 tariff subheadings spanning $16 billion in 2017 import value.
   USTR deleted intermodal shipping containers (HTS 8609.00.00); certain machines to split, slice or pair wood, work, bone, plastics and similar hard materials (HTS 8465.10.00); alginic acid (HTS 3913.10.00); microtomes (HTS 9027.90.20); and floating docks (HTS 8905.90.10), according to a USTR official.
   U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin collecting the duties covering $16 billion worth of goods on Aug. 23, after USTR on July 6 activated a first round of tariffs on China covering 818 tariff lines and $34 billion worth of 2017 import value, pursuant to USTR’s Section 301 investigation completed in March.
   “USTR and the Section 301 Committee carefully reviewed the public comments and the testimony at the two-day public hearing” held by the interagency Section 301 Committee July 24-25 at the International Trade Commission, the USTR official said. “Based on this review process, USTR revised the proposed initial list of 284 product lines to 279 product lines to remove products on which tariffs could cause severe economic harm.”
   The Trump administration has said it is imposing the Section 301 tariffs on China to pressure the country to change its unfair commercial practices against U.S. firms, including cited theft of intellectual property.
   The Section 301 Committee will hold another hearing at the ITC in Washington, D.C., Aug. 20-23 to consider a third round of tariffs on China covering $200 billion worth of products in 2017 import value.