The Census Bureau announced that preliminary March steel imports were $3 billion (2.6 million metric tons compared to the preliminary February totals of $2.8 billion (2.4 million metric tons). According to Census, the March change in steel imports based on metric tonnage reflected an increase primarily in blooms, billets and slabs. An increase occurred primarily with Mexico; a decrease occurred primarily with India.
Brian Feito
Brian Feito is Managing Editor of International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
Two Baltimore warehouse owners pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport stolen nickel briquettes stored next to their warehouse, which had been imported through the Port of Baltimore, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Gregg Lee Purbaugh, 50, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty Monday and his business partner, Kenneth Trainum, 44, also of Baltimore, pleaded guilty April 20. Purbaugh and Trainum, owners of Bear Creek Warehouse Company, each face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 25, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
In a challenge of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) classification of “boots [that] can be pulled on with the hands, and that…extend above the ankle” as "slip-on footwear," brought by plaintiff Deckers Outdoor Corp., the Court of International Trade ruled in favor of CBP. CBP originally classified the entries under HTS No. 6404.19.35, which includes “[non-sports] footwear [with outer soles of rubber or plastics] of the slip-on type, that is held to the foot without the use of laces or buckles or other fasteners,” dutiable at 37.5% ad valorem.
The U.S. said it was deeply troubled by what it described as lack of due process in China’s antidumping actions, and in particular the imposition last December of AD measures on imports of some $3 billion worth of U.S. automobiles, at a meeting of the World Trade Organization’s Meeting on Anti-Dumping Practices on April 23. The U.S. also said it was concerned on Mexican AD rate calculations, while Japan questioned 4 U.S. AD measures on Japanese products.
The International Trade Commission determined that a U.S. industry is not materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of galvanized steel wire from China that the International Trade Administration has determined are subsidized and imports from China and Mexico that the ITA has determined are sold in the U.S. at less than fair value.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 24, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the April 24, 2012, Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will appear in another TIT article):
On April 23, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The Foreign Trade Zones Board is issuing the following notices for April 23, 2012: