CBP is establishing procedures in the event of a longshoremen's strike (here). CBP said its Office of Field Operations is working with all field locations to update contingency plans so all affected seaports can resume vessel operations and entry processing of freight as quickly as possible. It issued general vessel, cargo, and entry guidelines developed in cooperation with trade stakeholders and incorporating CBP system limitations identified during the recent disruptive events. It said trade members should work closely with local CBP port management to ensure compliance with all CBP policies and procedures, and the procedures are only applicable during the disruptive event. Among other things, CBP said:
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases Dec. 18-20 (notices of most significance will be given separate headlines):
The Court of International Trade denied Millenium Lumber’s motion to dismiss a penalty action seeking $1.8 million in liquidated damages for the failure to get the necessary licenses to import softwood lumber from Canada. Millenium argued the government failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because CBP didn’t complete administrative proceedings to mitigate the penalty before bringing suit to collect the penalties. Relying on its past precedent, CIT said CBP mitigation proceedings are voluntary and discretionary, and so are not a prerequisite for liquidated damages actions.
The U.S. economy “has been marked by slow but steady recovery and some rebalancing since the last Review,” said the World Trade Organization in its trade policy review of the U.S. “Merchandise and services trade figures have rebounded significantly since the 2009 financial crisis and have now reached new peak levels, surpassing previous 2008 peak levels,” it said. While import policy has remained “relatively static” since the last WTO review in 2010, the U.S. has launched several export initiatives, including the National Export Initiative, and Export Control Reform. Preferential trade and Free Trade Agreements account for a large and growing share of U.S. trade, the report said.
The Court of International Trade affirmed CBP’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification of R.T. Foods’ tempura vegetables from Thailand as vegetable preparations in Chapter 20, rather than as miscellaneous edible preparations in Chapter 21. CBP’s classification as vegetables specifically described the product, so it could not instead be classified in R.T. Foods’ preferred catch-all edible preparations provision, CIT said.
The Court of International Trade’s November decision in International Customs Products v. U.S. marked the culmination of an unusually contentious case, and a difficult one for the court to decide, industry lawyers said. In its ruling, CIT said a Notice of Action that reclassified International Custom Product’s entries of white sauce was an “interpretive ruling or decision” that improperly revoked an earlier ruling letter, without the notice and comment period required by 19 USC 1625. About $300 million dollars in duties were at stake, as well as CBP’s flexibility to rate advance entries through Notices of Action. The outcome could impose burdens on both CBP and importers, said a former CBP lawyer now in private practice.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 3-7 in case they were missed.
CBP Los Angeles/Long Beach is working to ease compliance with the entry/clearance requirements so these vessels can dock at Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals as they reopen after the strike there, it said. It said CBP Los Angeles is maintaining close communications with terminal operators, shipping lines, brokers/freight forwarders, and Centralized Examination Stations (CES) to assess the status of recovery operations and adjust as necessary. Among other things, CBP L.A. is:
At the request of Sanderson Farms, Inc., a North American Free Trade Agreement panel review was launched on countervailing duties on the import into Mexico of chicken leg quarters from the U.S., according to a Federal Register notice scheduled for Dec. 5. The request was filed with the Mexican Section of the NAFTA Secretariat pursuant to Article 1904 of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The NAFTA Secretariat assigned Case Number MEX-USA-2012-1904-01 to the review.
The Supreme Court will not hear Hitachi’s challenge of time limits for CBP action on customs protests, after denying certiorari to Hitachi Home Electronics v. U.S. on Dec. 3. The denial means the Federal Circuit’s November 2011 ruling that the two-year time limit imposed on CBP by 19 USC 1515(a) is not mandatory will stand, and that accelerated disposition remains the remedy for importers who want to force CBP action. Several trade associations are discussing legislation to impose a mandatory time limit for CBP action on protests. But given the broad-based issues Congress is confronting in its lame duck session, any legislative solution will probably have to wait, said Susan Kohn Ross of Mitchell Silberberg.