Four U.S. manufacturers seek the imposition of new antidumping and countervailing duties on metal lockers from China, they said in a petition filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission July 8. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CV duty orders and the assessment of AD and CV duties on importers.
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.
An importer must pay nearly $1 million in penalties for customs fraud, after the Court of International Trade on July 9 found the importer knowingly misclassified its entries to save on duty, despite repeated instructions from CBP on the correct classification of the merchandise.
A domestic manufacturer filed a petition July 7 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duties on seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line and pressure pipe from the Czech Republic, South Korea, Russia and Ukraine, and new countervailing duties on the same products from South Korea and Russia. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line and pressure pipe that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties.
A three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade will hear a recently filed Section 232 challenge that opens a new front in the battle of steel importers against the tariffs. Maple Leaf Marketing (MLM), distributor of oil industry pipe that is exported from the U.S. to Canada for processing before being re-imported in improved form, says that CBP in April illegally expanded Section 232 tariffs to cover U.S. goods returned under subheading 9802.00.0050 (see 2004130056).
An importer can claim duty-free treatment under a special classification provision for goods returned without having been improved or advanced in value, even though a declaration submitted by the importer in connection with the claim only lists a range of exportation dates, and not the specific date that the goods were originally exported, CBP said in a ruling recently posted to the agency’s CROSS database.
Because the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative was in such a hurry on implementation, some USMCA details needed by traders are either wrong or missing. For instance, there are tariff numbers that are invalid, because negotiators used the 2012 Harmonized Tariff Schedule numbers. On a call with trade professionals July 6, CBP staffers said importers or exporters can email CBP with a tariff number in question, and the agency can provide guidance on how to claim USMCA treatment for those goods.
Importers continue to ask CBP what they should do about importing used cars that were built in Canada, the U.S. or Mexico, when they cannot know if those vehicles meet the new regional value content standards.
CBP is seeking comments by Sept. 4 on an existing information collection request for import bonds, it said in a notice. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the burden hours or the information collected.
Two domestic manufacturers filed a petition June 29 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duty duties on silicon metal from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Malaysia, and new countervailing duties on the same product from Kazakhstan. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations on silicon metal that could eventually result in the assessment of AD/CV duties.
Supply Chain resiliency was the topic of a House subcommittee hearing July 2, but the small business owners testifying said the larger problems were either a spike in demand beyond what their typical supply chain could deliver, or the cost of additional logistics and inventory storage because of the misalignment of production shutdowns around the world.