The Government Accountability Office, in a report required by the Dodd-Frank Act to assess the effectiveness of tracing regimes for conflict minerals, found the law hasn't reduced violence in the Congo, and may have increased violence around some small gold mines.
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 7 sent a customs classification dispute on truck steps to a bench trial after finding that the undisputed facts are insufficient for conducting a principal use analysis on whether the products are "side protective attachments." Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that while a Section 301 exclusion for "side protective attachments" is a principal use provision, and not a provision for an individual product, the court can't at this time properly assess the imports at issue under a principal use framework.
The Commerce Department is amending the published final results of an antidumping duty administrative review on stainless steel flanges India (A-533-877), based on a settlement reached in a court case challenging those final results. Commerce calculated revised AD rates for certain exporters that were not selected for individual examination. The new rates are applicable Oct. 4, 2024.
The Commerce Department is amending the Aug. 5, 2019, final results of an antidumping duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (A-570-970) based on the final decision in a court case challenging those final results. Commerce calculated a revised AD rate for exporters that were eligible for a separate rate but not selected for individual examination, changing it from 42.57% to 31.63%. The new rate is applicable Sept. 28, 2024.
CBP has issued a formal determination that affirms that 12 importers evaded antidumping and countervailing duties for transshipping Chinese-origin mattresses through South Korea. The importers also had claimed that the country of origin for the mattresses was South Korea.
Eight Republicans, led by Rep. Carol Miller, R-W.Va., asked the Commerce Department to reconsider how importers of hardwood plywood can participate in a certification regime, so that CBP knows those imports are not within the scope of an anti-circumvention case on Vietnamese hardwood plywood with Chinese inputs.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in responses to Senate Finance Committee members, talked about changes needed in USMCA, declined to endorse a permanent e-commerce tariff moratorium and called for more money for CBP, to address Section 301 tariff circumvention.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has extended until Nov. 14 the public comment period for a proposed rulemaking that addresses the risks of death and injury associated with children ingesting button cell or coin cell batteries obtained from toys by adding performance and labeling requirements for battery-operated toys containing such batteries, it said in a notice. The comment period originally ended Oct. 15 (see 2408130012).
Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat representing a district with a majority of Donald Trump voters, has introduced a bill to impose a blanket 10% additional tariff on all imports, an echo of Trump's original proposal. The former president later said he might impose a 20% tariff on those imports.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the Budget Committee, recently introduced a bill that would allow the administration to impose Section 301 tariffs on goods made outside of China if they are made by Chinese firms.