In a move that has shifted global attention back to tariffs, U.S. President Donald Trump recently proposed a flat tariff increase on all imports from several countries, including 30% on South African exports to the U.S.. These U.S. actions were reported on our blog earlier this week here and here. This blog post focuses on the South African governmentâs response. A Rebuttal President Cyril Ramaphosa has publicly opposed the tariffs, describing them as âunilateralâ and based on a…
US tariffs on imports of Chinese-origin products went into effect at 12.01am ET on February 4, 2025, with 10% duties being imposed on all imports of Chinese-origin goods. The executive order implementing the tariffs directs that in addition to imposing 10% tariffs on all goods of Chinese origin, low-value shipments of Chinese-origin goods are no longer eligible for duty-free entry under Section 321 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 USC 1321), significantly impacting e-commerce…
At the time of the publication of this blog post on February 3, 2025, the duties on Mexican products have been paused. Stay tuned for updates and insights and practical tips for trade between the United States and Mexico. On February 3, 2025, minutes before the Mexican Presidentâs daily press conference, Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico, and Donald Trump, President of the United States, held a telephone conference whereby they agreed to pause, for one…
President Trump signed an executive order on February 1, 2025 (“Executive Order”), imposing the long-anticipated tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“U.S. Tariffs”).Canada retaliated swiftly by implementing retaliatory tariffs/countermeasures at a rate of 25% pursuant to sections 53 and 79 of the Customs Tariff by way of an Order in Council (United States Surtax Order (2025) (“Canada Tariffs”). Read the Government of Canada’s press release here. For the…
The 2020 Basic Edition of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) is now available for downloading at: https://hts.usitc.gov/current. The full Basic Edition is https://hts.usitc.gov/view/finalCopy?release=2020HTSABasic or you can do Chapter by Chapter. It includes all changes made through Proclamation 9974 of December 26. 2019 (published in the Federal Register on Dec. 30, 2019).
On December 31, 2019, the US Trade Representative (USTR) posted on its website an advance copy of a Federal Register notice that announces USTRâs determination to grant certain exclusion requests, as specified in the Annex to this notice, and corrects a ministerial error in a previously announced exclusion. The product exclusions announced in the notice will apply as of the September 24, 2018, effective date of the $200 billion action, to August 7, 2020. The…
On 13 July 2017, the European Commission announced that it is proposing new rules to clamp down on the illegal import and trafficking of cultural goods from outside the EU, which it says is often linked to terrorist financing and other criminal activity. It comes just days after the Hamburg G20 called on countries to tackle terrorist finance, including the looting and smuggling of antiquities. The announcement states in part: