Tom Gould is joining Flexport as its vice president of customs and trade advisory, Flexport said in a blog post. “Tom is joining Flexport to help it scale its trade advisory services, spanning tariff mitigation, classification services, duty saving and deferment strategies, plus more,” a Flexport spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “Tom is joining at a pivotal time as Flexport’s clients navigate Twitter diplomacy and face an increasingly uncertain business environment.” Gould was previously with Sandler Travis, where he was senior director-customs and international trade.
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 a notice in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on polyethylene terephthalate sheet from South Korea (A-580-903), Mexico (A-201-852) and Oman (A-523-813).
CBP is “largely on the same page” with the cautious approach to the rollout of risk-based bonding recommended by the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, said John Leonard, CBP executive director-trade policy and programs, at a COAC meeting held Aug. 21 in Buffalo, New York.
CBP should be ready for when the next round of Section 301 tariffs take effect on Sept. 1, and multiple preparations are ongoing, CBP Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan said during the Aug. 21 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting in Buffalo, New York. While some products won't be tariffed until December (see 1908130018), "duties on a significant number of fourth tranche goods are still anticipated to go into effect Sept. 1, which is just a little over a week from now," he said. "CBP is prepared to implement this latest round of duties as it has been with all the other rounds." The agency has been working with "USTR to obtain a final list of the goods subject to tariffs, even though it started to change a little bit," will "make the necessary program changes to ACE" and "ensure trade stakeholders have all the information they need to file a proper entry."
TV imports to the U.S. turned sharply more China-centric in the weeks after the Trump administration announced its proposed List 4 Section 301 tariffs on finished sets from China among the roughly $300 billion worth of goods not previously dutied, an analysis of Census Bureau trade statistics found. Observers will debate whether importers’ rush to beat the threatened tariffs played a role in the steep influx of China-sourced TVs arriving in the U.S. during June.
CBP should provide more information through ACE to importers about detention and seizures involving intellectual property rights, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee IPR Working Group said in draft recommendations released ahead of the Aug. 21 meeting (see 1908160030). "There needs to be a linkage between the detention outcome and the subsequent seizure determinations," the working group said. "Currently, seizure notices do not refer or tie to detentions. There should be the ability to connect and trace detentions to seizures. As a short-term solution, the CBP Centers of Excellence & Expertise should work with their Partnership accounts to share this information."
CBP may soon implement increased bonding requirements for new importers that are bringing in merchandise subject to antidumping and countervailing duties, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) Intelligent Enforcement Subcommittee said in a report. CBP hopes to issue a Federal Register notice in August setting new single transaction bond requirements as early as Sept. 21 or Sept. 28, the report said. But the COAC will recommend the new requirements be delayed until bonding formulas can be worked out, the report said.
Though Walmart expects to finish 2019 toward the “upper end” of its previous guidance of between 2.5 percent and 3 percent same-store sales growth, it’s slightly scaling back full-year expectations on consolidated net sales growth, it said in a fiscal Q2 report Aug. 15. It was the first bellwether of possible retail impact from the 10 percent List 4 Section 301 tariffs taking effect Sept. 1, and again Dec. 15, on Chinese goods.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative posted to its website Aug. 14 its upcoming notice in the Federal Register detailing new Section 301 tariffs on a fourth list of $300 billion in Chinese imports (see 1908130033). According to the notice, beginning on Sept. 1, goods included in the first group of the list must be filed under subheading 9903.88.15. Then, effective Dec. 15, tariffs take effect on a second list of goods under subheading 9903.88.16.
Of the 140 Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings that the Consumer Technology Association urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in its June 17 comments to remove from List 4 Section 301 tariff exposure, the association won 37 deferrals to Dec. 15 in key product areas like smartphones, laptops and tablets and PC monitors when the final lists were released Aug. 13 (see 1908130033). The remaining subheadings face 10 percent tariff exposure when the duties on the newly configured List 4A take effect Sept. 1.