Customs Duty

Canada's government announced changes to its customs and antidumping duty regulations to bolster customs enforcement on dumped steel and aluminum, calling the diversion of cheap steel and aluminum "a threat to Canadian jobs and the North American market." The government said the changes will be subject to a 15-day consultation in the Canadian version of the Federal Register.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 19-25:

CBP must allow for a face-to-face meeting with importers charged with Section 1592 violations before imposing penalties, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued March 26. Finding in favor of a textile importer contesting more than $6 million in penalties and unpaid duties, CIT held that short phone calls between CBP and the importer’s representative did not meet 19 USC 1592’s requirement for an oral hearing.

CBP will be "closely monitoring importers’ compliance with the Section 232 measures," which take effect on March 23, a CBP spokesman said. "CBP will enforce the remedies imposed by the President under Section 232 on imports of steel and aluminum from covered countries into the United States," he said. "Companies will be responsible for paying the tariff while their exclusion is under consideration. Imports subject to these measures will be processed through CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) entry processing system, which CBP uses to determine admissibility and duty requirements for imported goods."

An array of steel executives and the United Steelworkers' president joined House members whose districts include steel mills in celebrating the Section 232 tariffs that are slated to take effect on March 23. "National security is only as strong as American steel, and the American steel industry is strongest when we have the ability to manufacture steel from start to finish inside our own borders," said Todd Young, US Steel's chief lobbyist. Only one aluminum representative was at the Congressional Steel Caucus hearing March 21. Bauxite, the raw material for aluminum, has no domestic source.

Butt-weld pipe fittings with one opening wider than 14 inches and the other narrower than 14 inches are not subject to antidumping duties on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China (A-570-814), the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling issued in February. Though the scope of the AD duty order includes pipe fittings “having an inside diameter of less than 14 inches,” the fact that the other opening on Val-Fit’s fittings is over 14 inches excludes the fittings from AD duties, Commerce said.

CBP is likely to quickly focus on misclassification and valuation as enforcement issues involving the coming tariffs on steel and aluminum as a result of the politics and revenue involved, said Michael Roll, a lawyer at Pisani & Roll. Roll discussed the new tariffs during a webinar hosted by the Los Angeles Customs Brokers & Freight Forwarders Association of America. "That doesn't mean that they are going to jump out the gate on March 24 hitting people with penalties necessarily," but there will be a focus on "enforcement, enforcement and more enforcement," Roll said.

The European Commission is seeking input from private parties on how an increase in customs duties on products from the U.S. in response to the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum from the EU would affect Europeans, it said in a notice. The EC is considering "suspension of tariff concessions under Article 8 of the [World Trade Organization] Agreement on Safeguards" and "imposition of increased customs duties on certain products," it said. "The Commission's intention is to ensure that applied additional customs duties are set at the appropriate level taking into account future developments," such as an exemption for the EU, it said.

A coalition of domestic manufacturers filed a petition on Jan. 25 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission, requesting new antidumping and countervailing duties on laminated woven sacks from Vietnam. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on laminated woven sacks that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties. The group filing the petition is known as the Laminated Woven Sacks Fair Trade Coalition.

A U.S. cigar distributor may have committed import violations and be liable for more than $3 million in unpaid excise taxes even though it did not act as importer of record on the underlying shipments, the Court of International Trade said in a March 7 decision. Denying Good Times’ motion to dismiss the case, partly because Maverick actually imported the cigars, CIT found that Good Times may have controlled the transaction and fraudulently “introduced” the goods in violation of 19 USC 1592.