Customs Duty

The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Aug. 21, beginning at 1 p.m. EDT, in Buffalo, New York, CBP said in a notice.

The footnote in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that says that the U.S. could change its de minimis level to match Canada's and Mexico's levels was roundly rejected by the Senate Finance Committee on July 30, when the topic was one of the most-discussed aspects of the deal. Paula Barnett, owner of Paula Elaine Barnett jewelry, was the first witness who testified, and she told the committee that she does not want U.S. de minimis levels lowered, because she doesn't have to pay tariffs when goods are returned from outside the country, and because she purchases opals from Mexico, and those purchases are under the $800 threshold.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of July 15-21 and July 22-28:

CHICAGO -- CBP would like additional authority under the Enforce and Protect Act to go after duty evasion efforts that don't involve antidumping or countervailing duty orders, CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner for International Trade Brenda Smith said on July 23. Smith and EAC Todd Owen with the Office of Field Operations discussed enforcement efforts during a meeting with reporters at the CBP Trade Symposium. "Remedy evasion is the same as EAPA," which "is the same as antidumping evasion, is the same as misclassification, undervaluation and transshipment," Smith said.

The number of investigations under the Enforce and Protect Act almost doubled in fiscal year 2018, CBP said in its annual report, and the agency was able to issue final determinations for 12 investigations that year; in fiscal year 2017, it finished only one. To conduct EAPA investigations, CBP has traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines. During the year, it took interim measures in six ongoing EAPA investigations to collect antidumping and countervailing duties. The entire EAPA program prevented the evasion of $50 million in AD/CVD duties during the year, the agency said.

Though President Donald Trump delayed imposition of List 4 Section 301 tariffs to restart negotiations with China toward a comprehensive trade deal, retailers continue stocking up on inventory as a hedge against the duties taking effect on short notice, the National Retail Federation said July 10. Imports at major U.S. retail container ports will remain at high levels this summer, “but are expected to grow only modestly compared with last year’s rush to bring merchandise into the country ahead of scheduled tariff increases,” the NRF said. “Retailers still want to protect their customers against potential price increases that would come with any additional tariffs, but with the latest proposed tariffs on hold for now and warehouses bulging, there’s only so much they can do,” it said. “We will still see some near-record numbers this summer, but right now no one knows whether there will be additional tariffs or not.” U.S. ports handled 1.85 million 20-foot-long cargo containers or their equivalents in May, up 6 percent from April and a 1.4 percent increase from May 2018, the NRF said. It’s estimated that ports handled 1.87 million containers in June, an increase of only 0.8 percent year-over-year. The July forecast is for 1.93 million containers to be handled, which would be 1.3 percent higher than the July 2018 volume, it said: “The small year-over-year increases expected in the next few months compare with double-digit growth in multiple months last year as retailers rushed to import Chinese merchandise ahead of expected tariff increases.”

The rapid changes in trade policy have elevated the need for adroit trade compliance management at international companies that hadn't previously been so concerned with customs duties, said two compliance professionals who spoke at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Annual Conference in Washington on June 28. "It's been an overall breaking down walls of communication" among the various groups at the company who "historically" didn't interact very often, said Antoinette Montoya, corporate export-import compliance manager at Bechtel Corporation. Now, though, "we've had a lot of really good strategic relationships built out of this," she said. Whatever happens with subsequent administrations, those relationships will "really help us in the long run," Montoya said.

Objections to the exemption of low value shipments from the Section 301 duties on goods from China demonstrates the need for a change in law to allow for de minimis exemptions for goods withdrawn from foreign-trade zones, the 321 Coalition said in comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The comments were part of the docket on the fourth tranche of Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, which are now on hold as the U.S. and China work toward a trade deal (see 1907010012). The coalition similarly said it would like to see federal law changed to allow for de minimis entry for goods from foreign-trade zones as part of CBP's customs framework review (see 1902140022).

CBP published the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts (underpayments) and refunds (overpayments) of customs duties. For the quarter that began July 1 and ends Sept. 30, the interest rates for overpayments decrease (see 1904020037) to 4 percent for corporations and 5 percent for non-corporations, and the interest rate for underpayments will be 5 percent for both corporations and non-corporations. These interest rates are subject to change for the calendar quarter beginning Oct. 1 and ending Dec. 31, CBP said.

The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on collated steel staples from China, South Korea and Taiwan (A-570-112, A-580-901, A-583-866), and countervailing duty investigation on collated steel staples from China (C-570-113). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2018. The AD duty investigations on South Korea and Taiwan cover entries April 1, 2018, through March 31, 2019, and the AD duty investigation on China covers entries Oct. 1, 2018, through March 31, 2019.