CBP Rejects Importer's Claims for Duty Free Treatment, Valuation After Regulatory Audit Report
A mattress material supplier in Puerto Rico can’t claim its imported innerspring units qualify for duty free treatment under the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement, and must add certain additional payments to the transaction value of the merchandise, CBP said in a recent ruling (here). Following a visit from its Regulatory Audit office in Miami, the agency found in ruling HQ H270834 that Adorable Pillows did not provide enough information to justify its claim for duty free treatment or its determination that the payments were unrelated to the subject innersprings.
Adorable Pillows claimed the innerspring units were made in Singapore by Parfait using Chinese-origin steel wire. That would have allowed the innerspring units to meet the applicable tariff shift rule in the Singapore FTA. But commercial documents showed that the Chinese raw materials were actually “steel wire & spring coils” from Foshan Jingxin Steel Wire & Spring, which is a Chinese vendor of innersprings that is subject to the antidumping duty order in place on uncovered innerspring units from China, CBP said.
The importer attempted to demonstrate that Parfait manufactured the innerspring units by providing CBP with a business profile of its supplier, evidence that Parfait had the equipment necessary to manufacture the innerspring units, and pictures and production records of Parfait’s manufacturing operations. But the production records failed to demonstrate the extent of Parfait’s production processes, and the photos and other documentation did not show the production actually occurred at Parfait’s facility in Singapore during the period Adorable Pillows imported the merchandise.
The lack of evidence, as well as the fact that on some of the shipments the invoices showed the same quantity and weight shipped from China to Singapore as the amount shipped from Singapore to China, led CBP to conclude that there is inadequate documentation that the innersprings were manufactured in Singapore and qualify for preferential tariff treatment. “Considering the extensive innerspring-related dealings between Parfait and Foshan, and given the fact that CBP was unable to confirm the existence of Parfait’s facility in Singapore, we would expect to see more detailed evidence that sufficiently address the questions concerning Parfait’s innerspring production,” CBP said.
Adorable Pillows also claimed additional payments made by Adorable Pillows to Parfait, discovered by CBP’s auditors, were not related to the transactions at issue but were instead “additional payments to Parfait [that] were to guarantee future production” that would be refunded if that future production didn’t take place. But Adorable Pillows did not produce a written agreement detailing the arrangement or invoices showing that the payments were a separate transaction. Documentation submitted by Adorable Pillows “only identifies the additional payments, but “the means of recovering the advances made to Parfait remain unclear,” it said. “AP has not provided sufficient documentation that identifies the advance payments and that addresses the specific method of repayment by Parfait.” The additional payments should therefore be included in the price paid or payable, CBP said.
On the other hand, CBP found entries of foam made in the Dominican Republic from German and U.S. raw materials do qualify for preferences under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Though the CBP regulatory audit had also flagged these entries as potentially problematic, entry documentation showed the chemicals were imported by Adorable Pillows’ Dominican supplier, Gomas. Production records show how the chemicals were used to create foam, and documentation, including a dated video, “supported by a newspaper,” demonstrates Gomas’ actual production processes, CBP said.