This evening President Trump signed an
Executive Order
authorizing the Treasury Department to allow certain importers to delay payments on some tariffs for goods entered in March and April for a period of 90 days.
The
temporary final rule
from Treasury explains that the exclusion does not apply to specific types of tariffs related to trade remedies, such as:
- Duties imposed under antidumping or countervailing duty orders
- Tariffs on steel and aluminum imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and
- Tariffs imposed under Sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
The deferral also does not apply where the
entry summary
includes goods that are also subject to the above types of tariffs. That means that if a shipment does contain goods subject to trade remedies, those goods should be entered on an entry separate from the goods for which this temporary tariff deferral is sought.
Finally, the
postponement does not provide for the return of deposits that have already been tendered.
Eligibility for the deferral is described as follows:
- "To qualify for this temporary postponement, an importer must demonstrate a significant financial hardship."
- "An eligible importer’s operation must be fully or partially suspended during March or April 2020 due to orders from a competent governmental authority limiting commerce, travel, or group meetings because of COVID-19, and as a result of such suspension, the gross receipts of such importer for March 13-31, 2020 or April 2020 are less than 60 percent of the gross receipts for the comparable period in 2019."
- "An eligible importer need not file additional documentation with CBP to be eligible for this relief but must maintain documentation as part of its books and records establishing that it meets the requirements for relief."
