ATA happy 53-foot containers dumped from tariff list

American Trucking Associations (ATA) praised the fact that 53-foot intermodal containers won’t be subject to the next round of Section 301 tariffs on China. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative deleted the goods from the next planned tranches of trade measures to take effect September 1 and December 15.

Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) subheading 8609.00.00 was on an original May list of tariffs proposed across about $300 billion worth of goods from China, but does not appear on either of two final lists (4A and 4B) USTR released this week setting 10% tariffs across a total of $262.6 billion worth of goods from China.

“Trucking and trade are synonymous, and we are happy with this most recent announcement by the United States Trade Representative that these 53-foot domestic containers won’t be subject to tariffs,” ATA Senior Vice President for International Trade Policy Bob Costello said in a statement. “We explained that applying tariffs to these containers would have a tremendous impact on the entire freight logistics industry and, ultimately, on U.S. consumers, so we are very pleased with the decision.”

In June, ATA told USTR that the only two manufacturers of these kind of containers were located in China and that freight transportation companies would have to pay any additional tariff costs because no domestic alternative existed, ATA said in a press release.