CBP and the Justice Department are still considering whether to file an appeal of a Court of International Trade ruling against CBP regulations to prevent excise tax drawback (see 2002270062), said Alexandra Khrebtukova, a lawyer at CBP. “That decision is not yet final” because the appeals period has not yet completed, she said. An appeal would need to be filed by April 20 and “the United States is evaluating whether to file its appeal,” she said. Khrebtukova, who spoke as part of a March 6 panel at the Georgetown University Law Center International Trade Update conference, said she was speaking on her own behalf and not for CBP or the government.
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 Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on corrosion inhibitors from China (A-570-122/C-570-123). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019. The AD duty investigation covers entries July 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019.
The Commerce Department issued its quarterly list of (i) completed antidumping and countervailing duty scope rulings and (ii) anticircumvention determinations. The following list covers completed scope and anticircumvention rulings for the period Oct. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019:
The Commerce Department issued a notice in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigation on difluoromethane (R-32) from China (A-570-121). The agency will determine whether imports of merchandise subject to this investigation are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The period of investigation is July 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019.
A third importer has now requested a court order blocking collection of new Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum “derivatives," and two others are not far behind. Huttig Building Products filed a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade on Feb. 18 challenging the new tariffs, and a day later asked for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that would bar imposition of the tariffs on entries from Huttig and its affiliate while the court considers the legal challenge. Astrotech Steels and Trinity Steel filed their own complaints on Feb. 20, though as of press time they had not yet asked the court to order a halt to the tariffs.
The Canadian Parliament is moving the successor to NAFTA along, so that a March ratification vote is still looking likely, news from Canada says. While the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will be reviewed by the agriculture, natural resources and industry/science/technology committees, not just the trade committee, the other committees only have until Feb. 25 for that review, a report from ipolitics said.
CBP's treatment of goods from foreign-trade zones that are subject to the recently decreased Section 301 tariffs should go through a notice a comment process because it amounts to a change in policy, the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones said in a Feb. 18 letter to the agency. “The 'level playing field' (i.e., providing U.S. FTZs and bonded warehouses equal Customs duty treatment), is a fundamental [principle] of U.S. law governing FTZs, has always been protected in the current Trade Remedy environment,” it said. A lawyer for the NAFTZ recently explained the arguments and said the letter was coming (see 2002120011).
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on lawn mower engines from China (A-570-119/C-570-120). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019. The AD duty investigation covers entries July 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019.
The National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones appealed to CBP officials during the group's annual legislative summit on Feb. 11 on the issue of CBP's treatment of goods that are in foreign-trade zones and are subject to the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China that will be reduced on Feb. 14. CBP said in a recent CSMS message about the tariff decrease that the applicable tariff rate for goods in FTZs is based on “the rate of duty and tax in force on the date of filing the application for privileged foreign status.” That policy has prompted some industry claims of inconsistency by the agency (see 2002050038).
The recent executive order to strengthen e-commerce enforcement is ambiguous, and how CBP plans to heed the order's call to restrict access to importer of record numbers based on customs and intellectual property rights violations is unclear, Sandler Travis lawyer Paula Connelly said. That's because, currently, domestic importers use their tax IDs to register with CBP, and only companies that have no offices in the U.S. file for an importer of record number.