U.S. Tariffs: And Now, Chinese Stone
By Emerson Schwartzkopf
WASHINGTON – The escalating trade war between the United States and China finally came to natural stone.
And quartz surfaces.
And tile.
The Trump administration announced plans late yesterday for a 10% ad valorem tariff on $200 billion of imports from China in more than 6,000 product categories. The list includes nearly all dimensional natural stone, agglomerated slabs (which include quartz surfaces) and an assortment of other hard surfaces, including some ceramic tiles.
The proposed new tariffs, which would be in addition to current rates, will be the subject of public hearings next month by the federal Office of the U.S. Trade Representation, with possible implementation in early fall.
The new tariffs are in addition to those tagged on 818 product categories last Friday and 284 classifications under review. Those lists include three product categories with ties to hard-surface production.
And, the proposed 10% tariff on Chinese quartz surfaces would be in addition to any punitive duties assessed in lieu of the U.S. International Trade Commission’s acceptance of antidumping complaints from U.S. quartz-surfaces manufacturer Cambria Company LLC.
A public hearing on the new 10% tariff request is set for Aug. 20 in Washington. No firm date is set for possible implementation of the new tariff.
The 194-page listing of categories for the proposed 10% tariff on Chinese imports includes all categories of dimensional natural stone as tracked by Stone Update in its reporting and analysis of U.S. hard-surface imports. Those categories include “worked” goods (usually, cut slabs with one side finished); monuments, columbariums and other funeral goods; curbs and sett stones; and boulders, blocks and other unfinished products.
The proposed 10% tariff would be an additional assessment to current U.S. duties. Tariffs ranging from 1.9% to 6% of declared customs value are already collected on stone from China and other countries not exempted by trade treaty.
Imported quartz surfaces from all countries currently leave U.S. ports-of-entry duty-free.
The long list of 10% duties follows tariff actions last week that could add costs to fabricators with production machinery.
Of the 818 import categories getting a new 25% tariff as of July 6, two may affect machine tools and grinders/polishers. A third category involving saws may be imposed later.
The first two, with import duties starting last week, are:
8464.20.01 – Grinding or polishing machines for working stone, ceramics, concrete, asbestos-cement or like mineral materials, or glass, nesoi (Not Elsewhere Specified Or Included); and
8464.90.01 – Machine tools for working stone, ceramics, concrete, asbestos-cement or like mineral materials or for cold working glass, nesoi.
The third, included in a list of 284 categories still under scrutiny, is:
8464.10.01 – Sawing machines for working stone, ceramics, concrete, asbestos-cement or like mineral materials or for cold working glass.
The operational word with the new tariffs affecting the U.S. stone industry, however, is may. The new duties are being assessed to specific classification codes, but imports – whether by accident or design –sometimes aren’t exactly classified by what’s in the boxes and containers. With more than 17,000 classification codes listed in the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), there can be plenty of reasonable or questionable options.
It’s also tough to pinpoint exactly how many of the goods now under new tariffs are used in the hard-surfaces industry, given the broad definition of materials being worked. Glass-working machine tools can be split off into a subcategory, though, to focus on the stone/ceramic/concrete/mineral-material sector. Last year’s numbers are striking:
| 2017 U.S. Imports, Machine Tools | ||
| (8464.90.01, non-glass) | ||
| Units | Value | |
| TOTAL | 614,890 | $19,688,155 |
| Top 5 | ||
| China | 521,221 | $4,413,996 |
| Italy | 16,472 | $6,443,262 |
| Korea | 30,946 | $2,552,179 |
| Japan | 10,111 | $2,061,654 |
| Germany | 5,386 | $1,529,794 |
The high-unit/lower-value formula also stays the same with non-glass grinders/polishers:
| 2017 U.S. Imports, Grinders/Polishers | ||
| (8464.20.01, non-glass) | ||
| Units | Value | |
| Total | 200,424 | $54,726,688 |
| Top 5 | ||
| China | 161,095 | $13,809,347 |
| Italy | 15,488 | $17,598,374 |
| Japan | 5,583 | $1,663,778 |
| Korea | 4,023 | $962,250 |
| France | 3,058 | $2,252,597 |
Sawing machines aren’t in the current tariff list, but could come later. Here’s the figures from last year:
| 2017 U.S. Imports, Sawing Machines | ||
| (8464.10.01) | ||
| Units | Value | |
| Total | 662,338 | $160,216,483 |
| Top 5 | ||
| China | 588,224 | $77,907,786 |
| Taiwan | 46,679 | $11,660,250 |
| Italy | 12,401 | $42,084,640 |
| Korea | 4,741 | $106,060 |
| Finland | 4,081 | $392,009 |
Again, it’s uncertain how many Chinese products gaining (or possibly gaining) a 25% tariff are actually distributed in the hard-surfaces industry. It’s a cinch, however, that some businesses that work with stone, ceramics or concrete are going to be paying more before the year’s out.
The tariffs proposed by the Trump administration are separate from the countervailing/antidumping duties currently being decided by the USITC and the federal Commerce Department concering quartz slabs.
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