The Specialty Food Association and dozens of industry stakeholders have requested in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, that all goods exported from Europe on October 2 or earlier be exempt from the retaliatory tariffs that are scheduled to take effect on certain specialites from the E.U., tomorrow.
“By imposing tariffs beginning October 18, 2019, the United States will be exacting new and unplanned costs on goods that were shipped from subject countries prior to October 2 but which will arrive at U.S. ports after the tariffs take effect,” states the letter, sent Tuesday. “These new duties will not be borne by the E.U. producer or manufacturer of those now-dutiable goods, but by the American importers which have already purchased the products and, very quickly, by American consumers. Nearly every product impacted by these tariffs transits to the United States from Europe by sea. In order to arrive in Washington State or Alaska before October 18, shipments of these products would have had to depart Europe in the first half of September or earlier.”
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