CBP posted a new “Version 2.0” of its Customs Broker Guidance for the Trade Community on Sept. 8, adding new information on qualifying licensed individual brokers, recordkeeping requirements for broker separation from a client, filer code suspensions and CBP standards for responsible supervision and control, among other things.
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 director of CBP's trade modernization office said CBP is packaging up the discussion drafts of what it would like to see in a 21st Century Customs Framework law, and sending them to the Office of Management and Budget so that the OMB can coordinate interagency comments and clearance of the language.
In the Sept. 6 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 32), CBP published a proposal to modify two ruling letters concerning reaching aids.
Four witnesses asked Congress to pass Level the Playing Field Act 2.0, a proposal that would change trade remedy laws in favor of domestic manufacturers, at a House hearing called the "Chinese Communist Party Threat to American Manufacturing."
The Commerce Department looks set to recognize the name change of a South Korean company for the purposes of antidumping duties on certain cut-to-length carbon-quality steel plate products (A-580-836) from South Korea. The agency preliminarily found that the post-corporate reorganization Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., Ltd. (Dongkuk Steel) is the successor-in-interest to the pre-reorganization Dongkuk Steel, in the preliminary results of a changed circumstances review. The agency preliminarily found Dongkuk Steel continues to operate as the same business entity, including that there was no name change. The new Dongkuk Steel explained that the spin-off of two business units in the reorganization and other moves did not affect the management or internal organization structure, production, supplier relationships or customer base of the CTL plate business. If Commerce confirms its finding in the final results, post-reorganization Dongkuk Steel may inherit the AD rates assigned to pre-reorganization Dongkuk Steel in the AD review.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely Sept. 20, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by Sept. 15.
Dan Wilson, former senior associate at Arnold & Porter, has joined Husch Blackwell as an international trade partner in the Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced. Joining the Technology, Manufacturing & Transportation industry group, Wilson carries experience in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings and customs matters.
An importer of forged steel fittings told CBP it was never aware its Chinese supplier was participating in a scheme to transship forged steel fittings, covered by antidumping and countervailing duty orders, from China through Sri Lanka, yet CBP concluded its Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation with the determination that the importer, YVC USA, had evaded the duties, according to a recently posted notice.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on mattresses from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burma, India, Italy, Kosovo, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and Taiwan (A-893-002, A-487-001, A-546-001, A-533-919, A-475-845, A-803-001, A-201-859, A-565-804, A-455-807, A-856-002, A-469-826, A-583-873), and its countervailing duty investigation on mattresses from Indonesia (C-560-839). The CVD investigation covers entries for the calendar year 2022. The AD investigations cover entries July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.
The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 17 opinion appeared to leave the door open for the government to collect additional duties in court cases filed by importers challenging denied protests. In the latest in a series of recently issued decisions finding the government can't file counterclaims in denied protest cases, Judge Gary Katzmann reclassified a government counterclaim as a defense, but said importer Second Nature Designs may be liable for more duties if that defense prevails.