President Donald Trump imposed a four-year tariff-rate quota on most imported quartz surface products after the U.S. International Trade Commission found that rising foreign shipments had seriously injured American manufacturers.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Friday establishing four years of import restrictions on quartz surface products, combining annual quotas with tariffs intended to give domestic manufacturers time to recover from a surge in foreign competition.
The safeguard follows an investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission, which concluded that quartz surface products were entering the country in quantities large enough to constitute a substantial cause of serious injury to American producers of comparable or directly competitive goods.
The Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America petitioned the ITC to conduct the investigation. The commission delivered its initial report to Trump on May 18, followed by a supplemental report July 2 addressing unforeseen developments that contributed to the increase in imports.
Quartz surface products include engineered slabs and fabricated components commonly installed as kitchen countertops, bathroom vanities and other residential or commercial surfaces.
Rather than imposing a single tariff at a fixed rate, the proclamation creates a tariff-rate quota. A specified volume of merchandise may enter under one duty level, while imports exceeding that amount face a higher rate.
The quota will gradually become less restrictive over the four-year period. The quantity allowed within the quota will rise annually, while tariff rates on products entering both within and above the quota will decline during the second, third and fourth years.
“I determine that it is appropriate and feasible to impose a safeguard measure in the form of a tariff-rate quota on imports of QSP … for a period of 4 years, with annual increases in the within-quota quantities and reductions in the rates of duty applicable to goods entered within and in excess of those quantities in the second, third, and fourth years,” the proclamation states.
The restrictions will apply to quartz surface imports from most countries, but the proclamation creates several exemptions based on existing trade agreements and the share of imports supplied by particular nations.
Canada and Mexico are excluded after Trump determined that shipments from the two countries do not account for a substantial portion of total U.S. imports of the covered products.
Exemptions also apply to Australia, Colombia, Israel, Jordan, Panama, Peru, Singapore and the Republic of Korea.
Countries participating in the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement are also excluded. Those nations are Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Developing countries will remain exempt when each accounts for less than 3% of total U.S. imports and their combined share does not exceed 9%. Countries covered by the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act will retain their existing duty-free treatment.
The U.S. trade representative will monitor imports from exempt countries for sudden increases or attempts to evade the safeguard. The administration may revise the measure if officials identify circumvention or determine that shipments from excluded countries are undermining its effectiveness.
Quartz products entering a U.S. foreign-trade zone on or after the effective date must be admitted under privileged foreign status. When later entered for domestic consumption, those goods will be subject to the new quota restrictions and applicable tariff rates.
The proclamation directs the U.S. trade representative and the secretary of homeland security to carry out the policy.
Former White House press secretary and communications director Sean Spicer described the quartz industry as part of a broader decline in domestic manufacturing caused by production moving overseas.
“One by one, manufacturing industries such as steel, furniture, and textiles have been offshored,” Spicer wrote in commentary.
“Today, sectors such as the U.S. quartz countertop manufacturing industry, with tens of thousands of workers in critical swing states in the Midwest and South, are the latest victims of this war on U.S. manufacturing.”
The four-year structure is intended to provide temporary protection rather than permanently close the domestic market. By increasing quota levels and reducing tariffs over time, the administration aims to give U.S. quartz manufacturers an adjustment period while gradually restoring less restricted competition.
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