Inspection requirements for most tomatoes from Mexico will begin April 6, the Commerce Department said in a notice. On that date, the U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin inspecting Mexican tomatoes for quality and condition defects, per the terms of a suspension agreement finalized in September (see 1909190068) that halted imposition of antidumping duties on fresh tomatoes from Mexico (A-201-820).
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.
The Commerce Department is amending its regulations to provide for the imposition of countervailing duties to address currency undervaluation, it said in a final rule. The changes take effect in 60 days, meaning that all investigations, administrative reviews or other proceedings that begin on or after April 6 could result in the imposition of CV duties for currency manipulation.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is set to require filing of its “core” partner government agency (PGA) data in ACE beginning Aug. 3, 2020, the agency said in a notice. “On that date, APHIS intends to begin applying Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) flags, which will alert filers who opt to submit data electronically whether APHIS import data is or may be required. Importers or brokers using ACE must enter APHIS-required import data when they receive an APHIS-specific HTS flag in order to complete their entry in the system,” APHIS said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 20-26:
The Food and Drug Administration has stepped up enforcement of Foreign Supplier Verification Program requirements for importers, moving beyond imported foods that pose imminent food safety risks to now also take enforcement action against all importers that fail to meet FSVP requirements, an agency spokesperson said. The agency's new approach can be seen in a barrage of four recent warning letters issued to importers for FSVP violations in the span of a month.
Recent CBP regulations limiting the amount of drawback that can be claimed on excise taxes look set to be invalidated, after the Court of International Trade issued a decision Jan. 24 that found those limits contradict the legal framework created by Congress for drawback and legislative intent to expand the duty savings program.
A class action lawsuit filed at the Court of International Trade Jan. 16 could result in billions of dollars in refunds to all importers that have paid Section 232 tariffs on steel products, though its chances of success are still unclear, and any payment is a long way off, lawyers say.
A pump assembly assembled in Mexico is subject to Section 301 duties, even though the electric motor that powers the pump is the only Chinese component and all of the other parts are Mexican, CBP said in a recent ruling. The assembly process in Mexico does not result in a substantial transformation of the motor, so the pump assembly remains a product of China, CBP said in HQ H303864, issued Dec. 26 and posted to the agency's CROSS database Jan. 9.
A U.S. producer of pipe used in the oil and gas industry filed a lawsuit Jan. 17 challenging the denial of exclusions from Section 232 tariffs on imported steel pipe it uses as inputs. Borusan Mannesmann Pipe U.S. says the Commerce Department relied on incomplete and inaccurate statements in objections from other steel producers to find that the company’s imports could be replaced by domestic production and should not be excluded from Section 232 duties.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 13-19: