McDonald's, Illy, Nestle and other companies responded to allegations from civil society groups that their supply chains in Brazil have ties to forced labor.

CBP is adding a new functionality in ACE that will allow importers to identify entries that are the subject of an antidumping and/or countervailing duty certification and show that, for example, the goods aren't subject to AD/CVD orders, the Commerce Department said in a notice released Feb. 1. The new mechanism will be deployed on May 2 and will make AD/CVD entry summaries more "readily identifiable" to Commerce and CBP, the department said.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 26 declined to dismiss a False Claims Act suit from a whistleblower that alleges her employer misclassified footwear to avoid tariffs. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger said the fact none of the defendants served as the importer of record for the allegedly undervalued footwear imports is irrelevant for purposes of establishing liability under the FCA (United States ex rel. Devin Taylor v. GMI USA Corp., S.D.N.Y. # 16-7216).

An analysis of how the stricter rule of origin for auto imports has been implemented -- including the unprecedented labor value content element -- praised coordination among the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Labor Department, CBP and other agencies with expertise, but noted that final regulations have been held up because the U.S. has not reached a final resolution in the dispute it lost at a USMCA panel.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas directed CBP and Homeland Security Investigations to "provide him with a comprehensive enforcement action plan in 30 days" to protect domestic textile interests. The announcement, after a meeting with domestic textile mill owners who asked the government to step up free trade agreement enforcement and Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act apparel enforcement and to end de minimis sales, also says that report should include "a determination whether current trade law provides adequate authorities to solve the core issues."

The Court of International Trade on Jan. 30 said that for drawback purposes the 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings should be read starting with their directly adjacent text and not the superior indented text. Judge Claire Kelly said the "plain meaning" of the statute governing substituted unused merchandise drawbacks refers to the "words describing the article adjacent to the 10-digit number."

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Old leather sold at fair market value by a U.S. importer doesn't count as an "assist" for customs valuation purposes, CBP said in a recent ruling. CBP said the imported merchandise would only have constituted an assist if it was sold "free of charge or at reduced cost," ruling that sales made at “fair market value” are neither.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance formally petitioned for the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to add eight Chinese processing companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act's Entity List.

CBP ruled that it provided adequate notice of its extension of liquidation for entries bonded by Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Company that it had found subject to antidumping and countervailing duties, the agency said in a recent ruling. CBP found that there was no requirement to provide anything other than a notice beyond posting the notice on its website, and the courtesy notice provided for under the agency's regulations is not required.