The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of Nov. 3 (some may also be given separate headlines):
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.
In recent editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 23-27 in case they were missed.
Increased Customs Enforcement, More AD/CVD Cases Increasing Workload at Understaffed CIT, Judge Says
The Court of International Trade is dealing with an increased case load, in part because of the executive branch’s newfound emphasis on trade enforcement, CIT Judge Leo Gordon said at an event hosted by the Case Western Reserve University law school on Oct. 27. The trade court is “seeing an uptick in the number of civil penalty and enforcement cases that are being brought at the court,” which, combined with an ever-increasing number of antidumping and countervailing duty orders, is putting a strain on the court’s resources, Gordon said.
UPS is working for the insertion of new NAFTA language providing for trilateral cargo preclearance, streamlined truck transportation between the U.S. and Mexico, and increased customs information submission requirements for Canadian and Mexican state-owned parcel services, UPS Senior Vice President for International Public Affairs and Strategy Amgad Shehata said Oct. 26. During a Cato Institute NAFTA event, Shehata called for a broad move away from paper-based customs procedures, noting that NAFTA parties are all single-window countries equipped for greater customs digitization.
The Court of International Trade's Rules Advisory Committee is considering a "format" for transmitting business proprietary information from CBP to CIT related to Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigations, said Justin Miller, Justice Department senior trial counsel, during a panel discussion at an Oct. 27 Case Western Reserve University Law School event on enforcement of customs laws. "Some of the items they've discussed is something similar to what we would see in an AD/CV proceeding," Miller said. There's been some concern about the treatment of confidential information within an EAPA proceeding (see 1703100012).
CBP posted a trade enforcement bulletin for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2017, which mentions a new training pilot program on trade fraud. The Office of Trade’s Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate Civil Enforcement Division developed the course and offered it to the Agriculture and Prepared Products Center of Excellence and Expertise in Miami, CBP said. "The three-day course included: roundtable discussions with Associate Chief Counsel, the Department of Justice, and [ICE Homeland Security Investigations]; overviews of the various enforcement tools with the National Targeting and Analysis Group; and team collaboration on current enforcement actions," the agency said. The course is part of CBP's response to a March executive order on antidumping and countervailing duty collections (see 1704030033).
A memorandum of agreement between the Commerce Department and the Department of Homeland Security signed last week includes plans to work together in looking at and updating customs processes to help facilitate e-commerce. “Having the infrastructure in place to help U.S. companies compete for these e-commerce sales is crucial to our nation’s position in the global marketplace,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in an Oct. 19 news release. Specifically, DHS seeks to "develop a position on the de minimis threshold increase" to reflect CBP "reprogramming requirements, as well as changes to DHS’s and other partner government agencies’ risk analysis processes for shipments no longer subject to customs duties," the agreement says. "DHS aims to ensure that risk measures applied to low value goods do not unnecessarily burden trade, as Congress intended."
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin from India and China (A-533-879, A-570-066), and countervailing duty investigation on PTFE resin from India (C-533-880).
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet Nov. 14 in Washington, CBP said in a notice.