The Court of International Trade should dismiss a government counterclaim of unpaid duties in a classification case on dried botanicals imported by Second Nature Designs because DOJ pointed to no authority that gave it a cause of action to assert a claim to collect duties in excess of those assessed during final liquidation, Second Nature said in a May 17 brief in support of its motion to dismiss the counterclaim (Second Nature Designs v. U.S., CIT # 18-00131).
Ben Perkins
Ben Perkins, Assistant Editor, is a reporter with International Trade Today and its sister publications, Trade Law Daily and Export Compliance Daily, where he covers sanctions, court rulings, and other international trade issues. He previously worked as a trade analyst for a Washington D.C. advisory firm. Ben holds a B.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire and an M.A. in International Relations from American University. Ben joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2022.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated May 17 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
The Court of International Trade on May 18 upheld the Commerce Department's denial of separate rate status to Chinese exporters Guizhou Tyre Import and Export (GTC) and Aeolus Tyre and the agency's assignment of the "China-wide" AD rate of 105.31% in an antidumping review on off-road tires from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu ruled that Commerce's methodology "exists apart from the provisions in the Tariff Act and regulations," and there was no statutory language, legislative history or regulatory language to lead the court to conclude that Commerce's methodology was unreasonable. The court also recognized Commerce's discretion to "draw reasonable inferences" from evidence on the record, the judge said.
In the May 17 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 19), CBP published proposals to revoke rulings on ethylene glycol bis M-toly and on an inflatable "Olaf" figure with holly berry motif.
A critical circumstances determination on imports of raw honey from Vietnam issued by the International Trade Commission should be remanded to the ITC due to a "flawed misreading of the statute," Sweet Harvest Foods and four other consolidated plaintiffs said in a May 16 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. In addition to misinterpreting the statute, Sweet Harvest said that the government's case endorses the ITC's use of outdated inventory data in assessing whether the entries were likely to “undermine seriously” an antidumping duty order to be issued in the future (Sweet Harvest Foods v. United States, CIT # 22-00188).
Commerce correctly used adverse facts available against Korean exporter SeAH Steel for its failure to cooperate in a countervailing duty investigation on oil country tubular goods from Korea, DOJ said in its May 16 reply at the Court of International Trade. The government argued that Commerce correctly found that the Export-Import Bank of Korea's (KEXIM's) Performance Guarantee program provided a countervailable benefit using AFA (SeAH Steel Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00338).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
A supermodule for use in hydrogen fuel-cell power plants is correctly classified as a water gas generator, not as "parts" of electric generators, fuel cell manufacturer and generator importer HyAxium said in a May 15 response brief at the Court of International Trade. HyAxium asked the court to rule that the PC50 supermodules are properly classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8405 and to dismiss the government's cross-motion for judgment (HyAxium v. U.S., CIT # 21-00057).
DOJ is seeking nearly $15 million in unpaid customs duties and civil penalties from five Florida importers at the Court of International Trade for alleged evasion of antidumping duties, according to a May 15 complaint (U.S. v. Lexjet, et al., CIT # 23-00105).
Actuator cable assemblies assembled in Mexico from Chinese motors and various parts from China, Taiwan, the U.S. and Mexico are products of China based on the motor's predetermined end use, CBP said in a recent ruling -- the first publicly released that cites the Court of International Trade's recent decision in an origin case involving Cyber Power (see 2302270064).