Bearing Industry Threatened by Potential Tariff Increase

The bearing industry received some unfortunate news April 10, 2018. According to the government, there will be an additional tariff imposed on all Chinese-made bearings of 25 percent if new terms with China aren’t negotiated.

How The Proposed Tariffs will affect American Bearing Distributors

The proposed new tariffs would add a list of products from China, all of which would receive an additional 25 percent rate. This new rate would be applied on top of existing rates. That would mean:

Chinese-made ball bearings would have a 34 percent duty rate applied, up from 9 percent

Chinese-made spherical roller Bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, and needle roller bearings would have a 30.8 percent duty rate applied, up from 5.8 percent

Chinese-made tapered roller bearings would have a 118 percent duty rate applied, up from 93 percent
According to The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), these tariffs are being proposed because certain policies and acts by the Government of China are “unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.” However, these added tariffs could hurt U.S. businesses, as importers of bearing products like Ritbearing may be forced to raised pricing on Chinese bearings by up to 25 percent in response to the tariffs. These tariffs would be put in place for products under the following HTS codes: 84821050, 84822000, 84823000, 84824000, 84825000, 84828000, 84829100, 84829905, 84829915 84829925, 84829935, 84829945, 84829965, and 84833040.

How to Help Stop The Proposed Bearing Tariffs;

For now, the proposed tariffs have not taken affect, as the changes are still being discussed and the USTR is seeking public comment. A hearing for the tariffs will be held May 15, 2018. Before then, people may submit a dispute against the proposed tariffs at www.regulations.gov.

These submissions must be made by April 28, 2018. When making a dispute, please reference docket number USTR-2018-0005.