The Treasury Department published its spring 2019 regulatory agenda for CBP. The agenda includes a new rulemaking that would amend CBP's regulations to revise the language on duty-free goods returned. The agency will try to issue an interim final rule by August this year. Specifically, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act extended duty-free treatment to products of non-U.S. origin exported and returned to the U.S. within three years after having been exported, and created a separate tariff schedule "subheading for returned U.S. Government property allowing duty-free return of U.S. Government property without time and origin restrictions."
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 vertical metal file cabinets from China (A-570-110/C-570-111). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2018. The AD duty investigation covers entries Oct. 1, 2018, through March 31, 2019.
In the May 15 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 53, No. 15), CBP published notices that propose to modify rulings and similar treatment for fruit products.
CBP can’t collect antidumping or countervailing duties when the scope of the AD or CV duty is still unclear as to whether the entries are covered by duties, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a May 16 decision. Affirming a 2018 decision from the Court of International Trade, CAFC held CBP should have waited for Commerce’s scope ruling on Sunpreme’s hybrid cells before requiring cash deposits, and ordered a refund of cash deposits collected before Commerce began the underlying scope inquiry.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on dried tart cherries from Turkey (A-489-835/C-489-836). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2018, through Dec. 31, 2018. The AD duty investigation covers entries April 1, 2018, through March 31, 2019.
CBP has responded to fast-moving developments in international trade with predictability and transparency, said Brenda Smith, CBP executive assistant commissioner-trade, while speaking May 16 at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event. With the Section 301 tariffs and other trade remedies, the agency has given the trade community the necessary information "as quickly as we can provide it," Smith said. "Just last week, in response to a setback in the ongoing U.S.-China trade talks, CBP responded rapidly to the 15 percent increase in China 301 duties. We consulted closely with USTR and the International Trade Commission to streamline the operational impact of the administration's policy goals, provided guidance to CBP field employees and the trade community and expedited programming changes" to ACE "to ensure that trade continued to flow."
Brokers Should Protest Liquidations Subject to Pending Tariff Exclusion Requests, C.H. Robinson Says
Importers should have their customs broker file a protest on liquidated entries that are subject to pending exclusion requests on the Section 301 or Section 232 tariffs, C.H. Robinson said in a notice to customers posted May 15. "Entries typically liquidate 314 days after entry date," the company said. "However, we have seen some entries liquidate sooner. If you have a product exclusion request pending, and your entry liquidates before it has received a determination, request that your broker submit a protest to CBP with the notation 'Section 232 (or 301) product exclusion pending.' That notation will allow time for the product exclusion to be determined." That way, if the exclusion is approved, "the protest can be amended to include the exclusion number or information and a duty refund to be issued," and "if denied, the protest can be withdrawn." A CBP official recently said the agency will be unable to give any refunds once a protest period expires even if an exclusion is later granted (see 1905090059).
Smartphones are the largest of eight classifications of consumer technology products that would bear the biggest brunt of the 25 percent Section 301 tariffs proposed on $300 billion in imports not previously dutied during the U.S.-China trade war, according to the Consumer Technology Association’s top trade strategist. “The import values of the products that hit our members are massive,” emailed Vice President-International Trade Sage Chandler on May 14.
The Department of Justice and Selective Marketplace agreed to a settlement over allegations of illegal use of de minims exemptions, the DOJ said in a May 13 news release. The DOJ agreed to join the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine in March (see 1904190006) as part of a qui tam whistleblower suit. The company, which is based in England, will pay a total of $610,000 to resolve the suit, the DOJ said.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet May 30 in Laredo, Texas, CBP said in a notice.