The Federal Maritime Commission is planning to issue an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on container return and "earliest return date" practices by carriers, Commissioner Rebecca Dye told the Senate Commerce Committee. She also said there will be an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on detention and demurrage billing practices.
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.
In January, some technical fixes had to be made to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule "to conform to amendments adopted by the World Customs Organization" (see 211227003). To now fix a technical error that occurred with that and to ensure that those "amendments do not extend the scope of the additional duties in the Section 301 investigation," the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a notice about two technical modifications to the HTS notes that implement the additional duties. The modifications are effective as of Jan. 27.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 7-13:
A Corona, California, customs broker was arrested Feb. 10 on a federal grand jury indictment charging him in a scheme to defraud a Japanese variety store. Broker Frank Seung Noah was charged with tax evasion and wire fraud involving customs duties. The indictment says he evaded payment of $1.5 million in taxes and engaged in a $3.4 million wire fraud scheme that overcharged one of his clients, Daiso, the variety store. Noah owned and operated Comis International Inc., a logistics and supply-chain firm that provided customs brokerage services to companies, including Daiso.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on barium chloride from India (A-533-908/C-533-909). Both the AD and CV duty investigations cover entries Jan. 1 - Dec. 31, 2021.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on sodium nitrite from India (A-533-906/C-533-907) and Russia (A-821-836/C-821-837). The agency will determine whether imports of sodium nitrite are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value or are illegally subsidized.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce hopes to be able to support the House China package, since the trade group supported the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, but said the House bill "continues to include numerous policies that would undermine U.S. competitiveness, and Members are being denied the opportunity to vote on amendments to address these issues." The Chamber said it will push during the conference process to get better bill.
Panelists at a Washington International Trade Association conference Feb. 2 said they're not sure when the supply chain crisis will ease, noting the U.S. brought a record number of containers into the country last year. Jonathan Gold, the National Retail Federation's vice president for supply chains, said he expects the amount to be even higher in 2022.
Thirteen groups that represent business interests told House leaders that they strongly oppose the changes to de minimis in the trade title of the America Competes Act, the House answer to the Senate China bill that passed last year.
The AFL-CIO said the House version of the China package "includes critically important fixes" to the Senate's trade title, including removing finished products from the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill, changes to antidumping and countervailing duty law, and the change to de minimis, which "would halt China’s exploitation of US de minimis policy."