CBP released its May 9 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 52, No. 19), which includes the following ruling actions:
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.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- CBP is considering offering trusted trader benefits to those in the e-commerce world as a way to improve compliance, said John Leonard, executive director-trade policy and programs at CBP, during a May 2 panel discussion at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference. The hope is to "incentivize all these new actors in this space to improve the platforms and marketplaces, etc., to be more compliant," he said. "Part of that could involve the Trusted Trader program" and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, he said. CBP "is looking at this very closely."
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Both the government and customs brokers will need to keep agile in light of the fast-moving changes in the world of international trade, said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner-trade at CBP. "The relationship between the government and private sector is very much facilitated by the role of the customs broker," Smith said during a May 2 interview at that National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America's annual conference. "I believe those that do international trade are helped by the knowledge and expertise of customs brokers. I think very often there is a financial function that customs brokers can also perform for the private sector. For CBP, I think, they help educate around requirements and we believe that's a very valuable function."
The International Trade Commission released Revision 4 to the 2018 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, making several changes related to recently imposed Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and iron and steel products. The updated tariff schedule includes a series of new tariff subheadings in chapter 99 used to administer quotas on South Korean steel that form part of that country’s exemption agreement, as well as new language in the subchapter notes to chapter 99 on the Section 232 tariffs. The changes took effect May 1.
CBP published the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts (underpayments) and refunds (overpayments) of customs duties, increasing interest rates by one percentage point from the previous quarter. For the quarter that began April 1 and ends June 30, 2018, the interest rates for overpayments will be 4 percent for corporations and 5 percent for non-corporations, and the rate for underpayments will be 5 percent for both corporations and non-corporations. These interest rates are subject to change for the calendar quarter beginning July 1 and ending Sept. 30, 2018, CBP said.
Extended exemptions from Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel left some countries and importers relieved, but others uncertain as to what is around the corner on June 1. Announced the evening of April 30 just hours before the deadline, the proclamations on steel and aluminum announce full, if undefined, exemptions for Argentina, Brazil and Australia, the final details of a steel exemption for South Korea, and a delay until the beginning of June 1 for Canada, Mexico and the European Union.
Though a new accounting class code will be implemented April 28 in ACE for duties on coffee imported into Puerto Rico, shipments from the continental U.S. to Puerto Rico, which are still subject to the duties, will continue to be presented as non-Automated Broker Interface entry summaries on Customs Form 7501, CBP said in a CSMS message. The duties, in effect since the 1930s, cover coffee imports into Puerto Rico under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) heading 0901 and subheadings 2101.11-2101.12, 2202.99.28 and 2202.99.90, and amount to $2.50 per pound on regular coffee and $1.25 per dutiable pound on coffee preparations, CBP says on its website. The issue of filing domestic shipments came up during CBP’s April 26 biweekly ACE call. The new accounting class code is only meant to automate imports of coffee from foreign countries, which have up to now been filed non-ABI, a CBP official said. The automation will allow CBP to pull out and calculate the Puerto Rico coffee duty separate from regular import tariffs, she said.
The European Union will require additional customs duties on U.S. sweetcorn, women's trousers, crane lorries and metal glasses frames in response to Byrd amendment collections, the European Commission said in a notice published in the Official Journal on April 24. "As a result of the United States' failure to bring the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA) in compliance with its obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements," the EC imposed an additional 0.3 percent duty on those products. CBP continues to distribute antidumping and countervailing duties under CDSOA even though that law has been repealed.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on glycine from India (A-533-883), Japan (A-588-878) and Thailand (A-549-837), and its recently initiated countervailing duty investigations on glycine from India (C-533-884), China (C-570-081) and Thailand (C-549-838).
In recent editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: