The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 25 - Dec. 1:
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.
A group of interrelated diamond sawblade manufacturers and importers that had been found by CBP to be evading antidumping duties now faces allegations of racketeering in a lawsuit filed Nov. 25 in a federal court in Indianapolis. The Diamond Sawblades Manufacturers’ Coalition says the Diamond Tools Technology (DTT) and Wanbang USA, both based in the U.S., as well as China-based Wuhan Wanbang, DTT Thailand and DTT Canada, employed wire fraud and mail fraud in a conspiracy to avoid payment of AD duties.
Laser phosphor displays imported by Prysm for integration into a display wall system are classifiable as finished monitors, and not parts of monitors, the Court of International Trade said in a Nov. 26 decision. The LPDs are each capable of displaying an image, and can’t be considered parts of a larger whole because there is no uniform configuration of which a single LPD can be considered a part, CIT said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 18-24:
An importer’s owner and executive can’t be automatically held liable for customs fraud penalties only by virtue of their position in the company, the Court of International Trade said in a Nov. 25 decision. Specific facts must link the corporate officer to any allegations of customs fraud, CIT said as it granted a motion to dismiss a penalty case brought against an apparel importer and its owner.
The Food and Drug Administration should harness blockchain, artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to address food safety issues in quickly evolving supply chains, and customs brokers will play a central role in facilitating adoption and the correct use of these new technologies by smaller and medium-sized operations, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments recently submitted to FDA.
The U.S. and the European Union would recognize each other’s product testing across a variety of sectors including electronics, toys, machinery and measuring instruments, under a proposed agreement released by the EU on Nov. 22. “The EU proposal seeks an agreement, under which the EU and the U.S. would accept the conformity assessment results of each other’s assessment bodies, certifying products against the legal requirement of the other side. This would enable exporters to seek certification of their products in their originating country,” the European Commission said in a press release.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has created a webpage with information on new requirements for importation of tomatoes and peppers to prevent the introduction of tomato brown rugose fruit virus. Effective Nov. 22, APHIS is setting new inspection and certification requirements for tomatoes and Capsicum peppers from Canada, Mexico, Israel, and the Netherlands, as well as certification requirements for tomato propagative materials from all countries.
Partner government agencies list several new regulations on their lists of upcoming rulemakings in the Fall 2019 Unified Agenda. The Food and Drug Administration says it intends to propose new recordkeeping requirements for high-risk foods, and again lists proposed rules to revise written assurance requirements under its Food Safety Modernization Act regulations. The Fish and Wildlife Service intends to expand its list of ports designated for importation of wildlife, and the Commerce Department is set to modify its licensing requirements for steel imports to monitor transshipment through Canada and Mexico.
Importers of goods from the European Union need to be particularly careful about the complicated web of country coverage and exceptions under Section 301 tariffs that began in October, according to KPMG trade consultants speaking during a webinar on Nov. 19. The structure of the new tariffs creates opportunities for duty savings in the form of tariff engineering, shifting supply chains and taking advantage of narrow carve-outs.