February 2024 Volume 6

WASHINGTON UPDATE

Such a move would mark a major change in U.S. trade policy and for the global economy. The Committee is recommending removing China’s PNTR status and thereby moving its imports from Column 1 of the General Duty Rates, not to Column 2 with Belarus, Cuba, North Korea, and Russia, but to its own new category. The Committee does not define what a “relatively short period of time is”, but trade policy experts in Washington expect some discussion in the coming months over stripping China of its PNTR status and imposing duties, despite the odds still being long of Congress taking such an action. Any change in the duty columns is in addition to the Section 301 tariffs of 25% and 7.5% tariffs on over 10,000 Chinese imports. New duties under a change in classification as recommended by the Committee are also in addition to antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) imposed by the Commerce Department due to selling at below cost (AD) into the U.S. or illegal foreign government subsidies (CVD). The Committee made a number of other significant recommendations to fellow lawmakers that would impact trade policy, including renewing a trade safeguard provision (Section 421) allowing the U.S. to impose tariffs on China due to threats to cause “market disruptions”. The bipartisan group of lawmakers also called for Congress to pass legislation for a process to negotiate Free Trade Agreements with Taiwan, Japan, and the United Kingdom as a way to help counter China. Were the U.S. to move on new trade agreements, few expect final action prior to the 2024 election. There is discussion of action in 2024 on legislation related to trade that would include provisions addressing China, including legislation supported by FIA, the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act. While the recommendations do not have the force of law, and we are very far away from revoking China’s PNTR status, the China Committee’s bipartisan report marks the first time since 2000 that members of both parties came together to comprehensively examine our competitiveness with China. The FIA will continue working with members of the Committee on their recommendations and legislation to address illegal and anticompetitive behavior by the Chinese Communist Party.

FIA Orders & Shipments Survey

FIA’s Orders & Shipments Survey program was re launched in 2019 as a web-based high-end survey product. The survey’s scope is confidentially tracking FIA member North American shipments and bookings for forged products inclusive of the Impression Die, Open Die and Rolled Ring processes. About the FIA O&S Survey: • FIA partnered with MTInsight, the statistical tracking division of The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), to build a custom analytics program to serve the forging industry. • Categories tracked include OPEN-DIE, CLOSED DIE and ROLLED RING forging as well as markets served, and material used. • Survey takes 30-minutes or less to complete each month • Included reports: • Monthly Index Overview • FIA members enter their monthly orders & shipments data into AMT's custom-built, confidential software system. • As first step members complete their full 2021 sales (in Excel), then gain access to the program for monthly data loading • This is a members-only benefit. Questions? If you would like more information or a Zoom demonstration to walk through the process of working with the software and loading monthly numbers, please contact Jim Warren at jwarren@forging.org. • Market Share Report (Dollars) • Product Report (Index Values) • Profile Report

Omar S. Nashashibi is a founding partner at The Franklin Partnership, LLC, a Washington-D.C. based lobbying firm representing the Forging Industry Association before the federal government. Phone: 202-715-1264 Email: omar@franklinpartnership.com

FIA MAGAZINE | FEBRUARY 2024 7