CBP’s new regional withhold release order on cotton and tomato products from China’s Xinjiang region presents new enforcement challenges for the agency, which is working on technological capabilities to be able to track origin for third-country goods made from imports covered by the WRO, CBP officials said on a call with reporters Jan. 13.
Brian Feito
Brian Feito is Managing Editor of International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
End uses and channels of trade matter for determining whether processing removes a product from the scope of antidumping and countervailing duties on stainless steel sheet and strip from China (A-570-042/C-570-043), according to a Commerce Department scope ruling issued Nov. 24. The agency found that the flywheel housings imported by Concept2 for use in its exercise machines are not covered by the AD/CVD orders, despite sharing the same physical characteristics as the subject merchandise.
The Commerce Department on Jan. 4 ruled automotive frame crossmembers made from extruded aluminum are covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968), in what a domestic aluminum group calls a “huge victory for our industry.”
The International Trade Commission posted the 2021 Preliminary Edition of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The new HTS implements the removal of GSP benefits for many Thai products, as well as the redesignation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as eligible for AGOA, and the extension of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act until 2020. New statistical breakouts are also added for many medical products, including those used in the treatment of COVID-19, as well as for industrial turbines and hemp seed, among other goods. Changes take effect Jan. 1, 2021, unless otherwise noted.
The additional Section 301 tariffs on goods from the European Union announced late Dec. 30 (see 2012300062) will take effect “with respect to products that are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 12, 2021,” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a notice. USTR said in a Dec. 30 news release that it would increase the tariffs as part of the ongoing World Trade Organization dispute over Airbus subsidies. The announcement disrupts settlement talks and “exceeds the amount of retaliation authorised by the WTO,” a European Commission spokesperson emailed. “The Commission is analysing the data in detail and will look at all options available on how to respond.”
The Solar Energy Industries Association and several solar importers filed a lawsuit Dec. 29 seeking to invalidate a recent presidential proclamation reimposing solar safeguard duties on bifacial panels and upping the safeguard tariffs on all imported solar cells. Joined by Invenergy Renewables, NextEra Energy and EDF Renewables, the SEIA says President Donald Trump failed to follow the requirements of the safeguard laws when he issued the proclamation in October.
The Commerce Department is solidifying an exemption from antidumping and countervailing duties on walk behind lawn mowers that creates an “enormous loophole” in the scope that will “ensure that duties are not collected a significant portion of the value of merchandise Commerce will determine has been dumped and subsidized,” according to MTD Products, the domestic manufacturer that requested the investigations on lawn mowers, in comments to Commerce.
The owner and CEO of a New York-based apparel company will spend six months in prison for submitting false invoices to CBP as part of a scheme to underpay duties, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 22 news release. Joseph Bailey of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced by a judge in Southern New York U.S. District Court after having pleaded guilty in January 2020 to wire fraud and entry of falsely valued goods.
A case on the classification of printed circuit board assemblies used in audio-visual transmission equipment will go to trial, after the Court of International Trade on Dec. 22 found it could not determine whether PCBAs imported by Plexus are principally used for televisions and dutiable at 2.9%, or principally used for other devices, including computers and smartphones, and duty free.
New licensing requirements for aluminum products are now set to begin Jan. 25, 2021, under a Commerce Department final rule creating a new Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. Similar to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System in place since 2005, the new scheme requires importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then submit the license number with entry summary documentation.