President Donald Trump on Friday signed a proclamation establishing a four-year tariff-rate quota on imports of quartz surface products, citing harm to the domestic industry from a surge in foreign shipments.
The action follows the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) conclusion that quartz surface products are being imported in high enough quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury to U.S. producers of like or directly competitive articles. The ITC launched the probe after a petition by the Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America.
The ITC submitted its report to the president on May 18. A supplemental report from July 2 cited unforeseen developments that led to the import increase.
Quartz surface products are engineered slabs and fabricated items. They are commonly used for countertops, vanities, and other surfaces.
Under the proclamation, quota quantities will increase each year while the applicable duty rates for goods imported both within and above the quota will decline in the second, third, and fourth years.
“I determine that it is appropriate and feasible to impose a safeguard measure in the form of a tariff-rate quota on imports of QSP … for a period of 4 years, with annual increases in the within-quota quantities and reductions in the rates of duty applicable to goods entered within and in excess of those quantities in the second, third, and fourth years,” the proclamation states.
The measure applies to imports from most countries but excludes products of Canada and Mexico, with the president concluding that those countries’ imports do not make up a substantial amount of total imports.
Similar exclusions apply to Australia, the CAFTA-DR countries (Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua), Colombia, Israel, Jordan, the Republic of Korea, Panama, Peru, and Singapore.
Developing countries whose share of total imports is below 3 percent, and whose collective share stays under 9 percent, are also excluded. Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act countries retain their existing duty-free trade relationship.
The Trade Representative is authorized to monitor for circumvention or import increases from excluded countries and, if necessary, to revise the measure.
Merchandise subject to the measure that enters U.S. foreign-trade zones on or after the effective date must be admitted under privileged foreign status and will face the new restrictions or tariffs upon entry for consumption.
The proclamation tasks the Trade Representative and the Secretary of Homeland Security to implement the measure.
“Today, sectors such as the U.S. quartz countertop manufacturing industry, with tens of thousands of workers in critical swing states in the Midwest and South, are the latest victims of this war on U.S. manufacturing.”
