In recent editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
The European Union and Mexico will further reduce tariffs on each other's goods as part of a new trade agreement, the EU said in a news release. "After several months of intense negotiations, this afternoon we reached an agreement in principle on trade and investment between the European Union and Mexico, as part of the modernisation of our bilateral legal framework," EU and Mexican officials said an April 21 joint statement. "Simpler customs procedures will further benefit the EU's industry, including in sectors like pharmaceuticals, machinery and transport equipment," the EU said.
In recent editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The Court of International Trade on April 16 denied an importer’s bid to sink a government customs penalty case, rejecting its arguments that the liquidation of an entry makes it final and bars CBP from imposing penalties and seeking unpaid duties. The court also found the government’s complaint successfully alleged that Great Neck Saw Manufacturers’ omission of purportedly improper “buying commissions” may have constituted violations of 19 USC 1592.
CBP is seeking comments by June 18 on an existing information collection related to the entry/immediate delivery applications and ACE cargo release, it said in a notice. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with minor changes to the information collected related to safeguard duties on washing machines and solar cells and Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products, as well as an increase of the estimated burden hours associated with the collection.
The slew of trade remedies "changes everything" for importers, making programs like drawback and foreign-trade zones more valuable to companies that previously didn't need to consider such options, said Amie Ahanchian, KPMG managing director, Trade and Customs Services, during an April 16 KPMG webinar. Of the 1,333 tariff lines on the Section 301 list (see 1804040019), about 60 percent, or around 800 line items, are duty-free today, she said. That means "if you're importing these items, you may not have ever considered a customs planning strategy because there were no duties to mitigate in the current trade environment," she said.
Importers should keep an eye out for the effects new duties on steel and aluminum have on importer bond limits, said Liz Gant, a corporate regulatory compliance analyst at Samuel Shapiro & Company, in the company's monthly newsletter. CBP "uses duties, taxes and fees based on the previous 12 months to evaluate the sufficiency of your bond," she said. That means that if the Section 232 tariff duties remain in effect for an extended period, it could impact bond sufficiency. "While the additional tariffs are in place, bond sufficiency should be monitored by the importer closely," she said. "An importer does not want to be surprised if Customs deems their bond insufficient and a shipment is delayed while the importer gathers the information required for the surety."
There are some new signs of progress for an update to customs broker regulations in 19 CFR Part 111, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner in the CBP Office of Trade, during an April 10 interview. Smith gave her approval to a regulatory package on the subject around two weeks ago, she said. "It's moving," but there still are "a lot of people that need to sign off on it," including within CBP, she said. Even so, "it's out of the Office of Trade, which is more progress than we've ever made before."
Flexport's clients would have paid about $13.6 million in additional customs duties if the proposed Section 301 tariffs (see 1804040019) were in place in 2017, the company's CEO Ryan Petersen said in a blog post. "While Flexport believes that global trade is absolutely essential to a free and prosperous society, our immediate focus in the coming weeks will be on the impact to our clients," he said. "We also believe these algorithmically chosen new taxes -- which were 'drafted to achieve the lowest consumer impact' -- are navigable by a resilient supply chain industry."
The Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum were only due on immediate transportation entries that were accepted by the port after the duty rates took effect on March 23, CBP said in an April 5 CSMS message. "Accordingly, entries of steel and aluminum articles covered by an entry for immediate transportation accepted at the port of original importation before March 23, may have been incorrectly rejected by CBP and/or incorrectly filed with a Chapter 99 steel or aluminum HTS classification," the agency said. The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America gave similar advice in a note to members on April 4 (see 1804040018).