International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 8-12 in case they were missed.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
CBP added on June 4 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs, it said in a CSMS message. The official Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice for the exclusions was published May 28 (see 2005220020). The exclusions are in subheading 9903.88.48. The exclusions are available for any product that meets the description in the Annex to USTR’s notice, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 24, 2018, the date the tariffs on the third list took effect, and remain in effect until Aug. 7, 2020. The CSMS message also includes a summary of Section 301 duties that shows information on each tranche of tariffs and granted product exclusions.
Taxes paid to a foreign government that are later refunded upon export to the U.S. need not be included within the transaction value report upon import, CBP said in a June 4 ruling. Richard Furman, a lawyer who represents Robert Graham Designs (RGD), requested a CBP ruling on whether such taxes and levies “are deductible from the transaction value of apparel imported from India,” the agency said. The company is an importer, designer and wholesaler of apparel.
Aluminum waste recovered from a manufacturing process in a foreign-trade zone is not subject to Section 232 tariffs or to antidumping and countervailing duties upon entry, CBP said in a May 8 ruling. Shannon Fura, a lawyer with Page Fura, sought CBP's ruling on behalf of the U.S. Granules Corp. (USGC). The company buys aluminum scrap and waste from suppliers that generate recoverable aluminum from manufacturing operations within an FTZ, it said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 1-5 in case they were missed.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced a new round of Section 301 tariff exclusions (see 2006090003). New subheading 9903.88.49 will be used for the new exclusions. The new set of exclusions are reflected in “two 10-digit [Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS)] subheadings and 32 specially prepared product descriptions, which together respond to 55 separate exclusion requests,” according to the notice. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 1, 2019, and will remain in effect until Sept. 1, 2020.
Bonded merchandise can only be carried by non-bonded parties if the bonded carrier first takes physical delivery of the merchandise and obligates its bond to a non-bonded carrier, CBP said in a May 5 ruling. Barnes Richardson lawyer Larry Friedman requested the ruling on behalf of Ford Motor Company. Friedman asked CBP for input on a logistics company proposal for consolidating immediate transportation and immediate exportation processes, it said.
CBP released its long-awaited proposal to update customs broker regulations. Among other changes, CBP proposes to “update the responsible supervision and control oversight framework, ensure that customs business is conducted within the United States, and require that the customs broker have direct communication with the importer.” The regulatory changes were under government review for years (see 1804110024) following lengthy discussions about the updates (see 1510210017).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will begin Section 301 investigations into digital services taxes (DSTs) that were either adopted or under consideration by multiple governments, the agency said in a June 2 news release. The investigations are focused on Austria, Brazil, the Czech Republic, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, it said.
CBP is planning an initially lax approach to enforcement of certifications of origin once the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement enters into force on July 1, said Maya Kumar, director of textiles and trade agreements at CBP, while on a June 1 agency webinar about the deal. “The first six months of this trade agreement, we can pretty much say there will be very little enforcement to no enforcement,” she said. “We understand the position, CBP understands the position that we're in. So we will use maximum flexibility” to avoid putting “trade under stress.” In the unlikely event of a USMCA-related request for information through a Customs Form 28 during those six months, CBP will allow for “extra time to go ahead and get the documents you need from the suppliers,” she said. “The idea is that for the first six months to be extra flexible and then to still use flexibility when we request documents.”