The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Aug. 26. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:
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.
The Commerce Department on Aug. 24 released its quarterly list of (i) completed antidumping and countervailing duty scope rulings and (ii) anti-circumvention determinations. The following list covers completed scope rulings for the period April 1, 2021, through June 30, 2021:
A federal jury found six companies guilty of a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. through a “wire-and-customs” fraud scheme in which $1.8 billion in antidumping and countervailing duties were avoided on aluminum extrusions imported to the U.S. from China, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District 0f California said Aug. 23. Disguising the extrusions as “pallets,” the goods were shipped to the U.S. and sold to fraudulently inflate a Chinese company's revenues, the Department of Justice said. Litigation over the aluminum pallets has been going on in multiple venues (see 2011090041).
CBP provided some more detail on the requirements of importers and brokers for duty-free claims under subheading 9801.00.10, in a recent CSMS message. The update revises a guidance issued by CBP in 2017 on legislative changes that allowed for duty-free treatment of products of the U.S. returned within any time frame after having been exported, or products of other countries returned within three years after having been exported, and not advanced in value or improved in condition (see 1702010047). CBP said it plans to propose regulatory changes to "align" the regulations with the law.
OtterBox's victory in a Court of International Trade case setting a lower duty rate in a customs challenge on smartphone covers cannot be extended to a prior disclosure made by OtterBox, CIT said in an Aug. 18 opinion. Judge Claire Kelly ruled that the court did not have the jurisdiction to make the determination that entries not part of the Summons of the case should be reliquidated.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representatively should allow for goods that were subject to Section 301 tariffs at the time of entry to a foreign-trade zone to be tariffed at whatever rate is in effect when the goods are removed from the FTZ, the National Associations of Foreign-Trade Zones said in a recent letter to the USTR. The trade group offered support for the suspension on Section 301 duties that were related to digital services taxes, and said that "the notices confirm the application of Sec. 301 duty rates in effect at the time of Customs entry for subject merchandise admitted into a U.S. foreign-trade zone (FTZ) in mandated privileged-foreign (PF) status."
A permanent extension to the policy that protected customs brokers from having clawbacks as a result of their customers' bankruptcies was proposed by Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., on July 29. Currently, the duties that brokers transfer to CBP are not treated as vendor payments, so they are not subject to clawback provisions under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, whereby payments to vendors within 90 days can be seized by the bankruptcy courts for redistribution. But that change expires at the end of the year (see 2012210045).
Stargate Apparel, Rivstar Apparel and their former owner and CEO, Joseph Bailey, settled a False Claims Act case with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York over the companies' use of inaccurate invoices to underreport their clothing imports, the Department of Justice said July 28. Under the settlement, Bailey and the New York-headquartered companies admitted to engaging in the fraudulent schemes. Bailey will pay $3.2 million while the employee stock ownership plan that owns the two companies will pay a combined $2.8 million, DOJ said. Bailey and the companies led two “double invoicing” schemes 2004-2015, according to the complaint.
The shift from NAFTA to USMCA has been taxing for vehicle manufacturing sector companies, panelists on a KPMG seminar said about the trade deal, one year in. But for Georgia-Pacific, compliance is simpler after the rewrite. Myesha Cottom, director of international trade at Georgia-Pacific, said that getting rid of the template for NAFTA goods and going to minimum data elements means less administrative burden. "I’m optimistic that the administrative burden will continue to decrease," she said during the July 28 webinar.
The Commerce Department issued a Federal Register notice on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber from France (A-427-832), South Korea (A-580-912) and Mexico (A-201-855). The agency will determine whether imports of AB Rubber are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The investigations cover entries during the period April 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021.