Brian Feito

The International Trade Commission is beginning an investigation into whether to extend Section 201 safeguard duties on large residential washers, it said in a notice released Aug. 11. The ITC will consider whether the tariff-rate quota put in place in 2018 “continues to be necessary to prevent or remedy serious injury and whether there is evidence that the domestic industry is making a positive adjustment to import competition.”

An importer of apparel warehoused in Canada does not have enough documentation for its entries to qualify for duty-free entry as previously imported goods exported under agreement and re-imported under subheading 9801.00.20, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued Aug. 7.

Almost three-quarters of all exclusions from list three Section 301 China tariffs are now set to expire Aug. 7, after the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative declined to extend them in the run-up to their expiration. In a notice released Aug. 6, USTR only granted extensions to 266 of the about 1,000 list three exclusions published to date.

The Commerce Department must reconsider its decision to deny an importer’s requests for exclusions from Section 232 steel tariffs, and flesh out the scant rationale the agency offered alongside the denials, the Court of International Trade said in an Aug. 5 decision.

The president and part-owner of a jewelry importer will pay $415,000 to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit that alleged his company undervalued entries in an effort to avoid paying duties, the Department of Justice said in an Aug. 3 news release. Anshul Gandhi, resident of New Jersey, admitted as part of the settlement that he knew of the customs fraud, avoiding a more than $7 million judgment entered in New York Southern District federal court that same day.

The Court of International Trade on July 31 dismissed a challenge to an ongoing Enforce and Protect Act investigation of antidumping duty evasion, finding the importer must wait for the EAPA investigation to conclude before the court can have jurisdiction to decide the lawsuit.

An interagency seafood trade task force focused on market access for U.S. exports should also turn its attention to imports, which have surged while exports have remained flat over the past decade, the Southern Shrimp Alliance said in a July 29 news release. The trade group and others said so in comments submitted to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in response to a July 10 notice seeking input on the development of a national seafood export strategy by the Seafood Trade Task Force. Comments are due Aug. 1.

As importers await CBP guidance on imports from Hong Kong, some think there still may be more to come from a recent executive order suspending Hong Kong’s special status under certain trade laws. While the order only mentioned country of origin marking on the import side, “I also suspect that the details will continue to emerge and that other restrictions may be applied,” Lawrence Friedman of Barnes Richardson said by email.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will grant extensions to 14 exclusions from the second list of Section 301 tariffs on goods from China that were due to expire July 31, it said in a notice. The 55 exclusions that weren't extended, all listed in U.S. Note 20(o) to subchapter III of chapter 99 and filed under subheading 9903.88.12, will expire July 31. The 14 extended exclusions will now expire Dec. 31, USTR said.

An importer has filed suit at the Court of International Trade seeking refunds on Section 301 tariffs based on exclusions issued after the relevant entries liquidated. Trebbianno, which does business as Showroom 35, seeks refunds of $270,040.90 in duties it paid on its imports of handbags, wallets and purses that were subsequently included under retroactive exclusions issued by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.