Businesses should anticipate that even more derivative products could be added to the list of Section 232 tariffs for steel and aluminum (see 2508150063), Flexport senior trade advisory manager Anna Zajac said during an Aug. 20 company webinar on the tariffs.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on freight rail couplers and parts thereof from the Czech Republic (A-851-806) and India (A-533-940), as well as its countervailing duty investigation on freight rail couplers from India (C-533-941). The CVD investigation covers entries in calendar year 2024. The AD investigations cover entries July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
As importers await a decision from the higher courts on the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, importers should hedge themselves against any outcome, according to Jen Diaz, president of Diaz Trade Law, who was speaking on an Aug. 11 podcast hosted by the Global Training Center.
CBP has provided guidance via an Aug. 15 cargo systems message for transportation carriers and qualified parties on how to proceed with collecting duties from international mail shipments that would have been eligible for de minimis treatment.
Some companies and associations in the solar industry endorsed additional tariffs on Chinese polysilicon, but others expressed concern that allied countries will be hit with overlapping Section 232 tariffs on both imports of polysilicon and solar cells, in public comments to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
The Census Bureau is finalizing a rule that will expand the types of parties responsible for submitting export filings for in-transit shipments that are imported to the U.S. from foreign countries before being exported to another foreign destination. The agency also is adding new language to acknowledge that those parties rely on information from others to make sure the shipments comply with export controls, said it plans to eventually move forward with a new country of origin reporting requirement for in-transit exports, revised its detention for "ultimate consignee" and made other clarifications to the Foreign Trade Regulations.
U.S.-origin resin bought by a Chinese manufacturer to make zipper bags isn't an assist for valuation purposes because it was bought at full price from U.S. suppliers unrelated to the U.S. importer of the bags, CBP said in a recent ruling.
The Commerce Department is beginning an anti-circumvention inquiry to determine whether all imports of steel wire garment hangers from Cambodia made from Chinese or Vietnamese steel wire are circumventing antidumping duties and countervailing duties on steel wire garment hangers from Vietnam (A-552-812/C-552-813) and an AD order on steel wire garment hangers from China (A-570-918), it said in a notice to be published Aug. 12.
The president's trade team has been suggesting that its definition of transshipment is different than what the word has traditionally meant -- that they will assign country of origin based on how much of the finished good was made from local inputs.
The U.S. filed a motion for default judgment on Aug. 7 against importer E-Dong, U.S.A. in pursuit of $234,748.30 in lost revenue due to the importer's negligent failure to pay a federal excise tax on its "Korean distilled beverage soju." The government said E-Dong lied on customs forms by misclassifying the distilled liquor as rice wine, adding that these misstatements "constitute negligent violations for failure to exercise reasonable care and competence" (United States v. E-Dong, U.S.A., CIT # 24-00066).