USTR has released a second press release publishing a draft Federal Register Notice and announcing additional Section 301 investigations into 60 economies. USTR is investigating whether acts, policies, and practices of these countries related to their failure to enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. As previously alerted, we anticipate that the Trump Administration will take efforts to streamline/expedite these investigations in order to impose any new tariffs before or around the 24 July (150-day) expiration date for Section 122 tariffs.
USTR has opened a docket for public comments and noted the following key dates:
Impact to PMMI and Next Steps:
The top ten source countries for food processing and packaging machinery are targeted under this action. We are not able to estimate tariff cost exposure at this time given no announced tariff rates.
Looking ahead, Section 301 tariffs may be applied in different ways:
We have included the full list of countries impacted below. Countries also impacted by the Section 301 investigation into structural excess capacity are noted in red.
