By Alex Lawson

Law360 (March 25, 2020, 1:53 PM EDT) -- The Trump administration has floated a proposal that will allow importers more time to pay tariffs on goods they bring in during the novel coronavirus outbreak, sparking an outcry from domestic producers calling for strict enforcement of U.S. trade laws.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection quietly issued a notice Friday suggesting it would offer a degree of flexibility to importers as part of its COVID-19 response. The notice was brief, saying only that the agency "will approve on a case by case basis additional days for payment of estimated duties, taxes and fees due to this emergency."

CBP did not articulate how it would decide whether to grant a company more time to pay an import tariff or how long its relaxed collection policy would remain in place. But it didn't take long for U.S. producers to line up against the policy shift.

A Tuesday letter spearheaded by the American Iron and Steel Institute warned the administration against abandoning its obligations to enforce basic trade laws during the health crisis, suggesting that doing so would only create more discomfort for American companies.

"Any efforts to delay or reduce the collection of duties on unfairly-traded steel imports or imports that threaten to impair U.S. national and economic security will ultimately hurt U.S. workers and businesses during this unprecedented moment," the letter said.

The steel groups stressed that CBP's role has always been to balance the facilitation of legitimate trade with the curbing of unfair commercial practices, adding that the fractured supply chains arising out of the pandemic leaves the U.S. vulnerable.

"We must not allow this crisis to encourage bad actors from taking advantage of an at-risk system during this crisis period," they said.

The administration's tariff and trade policies have emerged as a flashpoint in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Importer groups like the National Retail Federation have called for an across-the-board halt of the administration's tariffs on Chinese goods to blunt the economic burden of the virus.

While a system of case-by-case tariff delays falls short of full duty removal, NRF spokesman Jonathan Gold nevertheless welcomed the move to give import-reliant companies a bit of breathing room. CBP's notice doesn't specify how long any reprieve from tariff payment would last, but NRF and other companies have been pushing for a grace period of 90 days.

"It is critical that the administration take all available steps right now to help companies to stay in business during this crisis," Gold told Law360. "A delay in duty payments, similar to how the IRS is delaying taxes, would provide companies with cash they need now to support their operations and pay their employees."

CBP has policies in place that give importers more time to make duty payments for situations where inclement weather conditions make on-the-spot payments impossible, and Gold said he viewed the agency's new notice as an extension of that policy to apply during the pandemic.

But some corners of the trade bar questioned the viability of CBP's course of action. Barnes Richardson & Colburn LLP partner Lawrence Friedman applauded the agency for seeking out solutions to the crunch facing the nation's importers, but said the case-by-case "piecemeal" approach may make things more difficult.

"It strikes me that CBP's resources are probably pretty well maxed out and a new case-by-case process is probably not what they need right now," Friedman told Law360.

--Editing by Daniel King.

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