`Importers Ask for Tariff Exemption for Goods Shipped Before October - Olive Oil Times

Importers Ask for Tariff Exemption for Goods Shipped Before October

By Daniel Dawson
Oct. 16, 2019 12:16 UTC

The North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA) and 80 other American trade orga­ni­za­tions have writ­ten to the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to ask for an exemp­tion to impend­ing tar­iffs on prod­ucts shipped from Europe before the start of October.

The NAOOA argues that the 25 per­cent tar­iff recently imposed on some Spanish olive oils, which will come into force on October 18, will impact the prices of olive oil that left Spanish ports as early as mid-September and hurt American importers and con­sumers.

These new duties will not be borne by the E.U. pro­ducer or man­u­fac­turer of those now-dutiable goods, but by the American importers which have already pur­chased the prod­ucts and, very quickly, by American con­sumers,” the sig­na­to­ries of the let­ter wrote to Robert Lightheizer, the head of the USTR.

In order to mit­i­gate the poten­tial impacts of these tar­iffs on importers and con­sumers, the NAOOA and the rest of the sig­na­to­ries rec­om­mend exempt­ing goods that left European ports prior to October 2 from the tar­iffs.

To pre­vent the cost of the tar­iffs from falling entirely on American busi­nesses and con­sumers, we ask that all goods exported from Europe October 2 or ear­lier be exempt from tar­iffs,” the sig­na­to­ries wrote.

They cited a sim­i­lar exemp­tion that was pro­vided to recently-tar­iffed Chinese goods back in May, which was done with the express pur­pose of pro­tect­ing American busi­nesses and con­sumers.

This was an appro­pri­ate tech­ni­cal accom­mo­da­tion,” the sig­na­to­ries wrote. We ask for its use again in this case.”


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