The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on stainless steel welded wire mesh from Mexico (A-201-853/C-201-854). The agency will determine whether imports of Mexican welded wire mesh are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value or are illegally subsidized. The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019. The AD duty investigation covers entries April 1, 2019, through March 31, 2020.
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 issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on silicon metal from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Malaysia (A-893-001, A-400-001, A-557-820), and countervailing duty investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan (C-834-811).
A recent executive order suspending Hong Kong's special trade status won't result in additional tariffs on goods from Hong Kong, a senior administration official said in a July 23 email. “The July 14, 2020, Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization does not provide for new U.S. tariffs on goods from Hong Kong,” the official said. “The Administration will continue to evaluate and adjust our policies as conditions warrant.”
The Department of Justice reached an $8 million settlement agreement with CWD, which does business as Centric Parts, over questionable classifications of imported brake pads, DOJ said in news releases. The settlement resolves separate whistleblower complaints filed in Michigan and California. Centric is alleged to have misclassified mounted brake pads as unmounted brake pads upon import, DOJ said. Mounted brake pads have a 2.5% duty rate, while unmounted pads are duty-free.
The Commerce Department issued a notice in the July 23 Federal Register on its recently initiated countervailing duty investigations on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco (C-714-001) and Russia (C-821-825).
CBP published the quarterly Internal Revenue Service interest rates used to calculate interest on overdue accounts (underpayments) and refunds (overpayments) of customs duties. For the quarter that began July 1 and ends Sept. 30, the interest rates for overpayments remains 2% for corporations and 3% for non-corporations, and the interest rate for underpayments will be 3% for both corporations and non-corporations. These interest rates are subject to change for the Oct. 1-Dec. 31 quarter, CBP said.
CBP “is evaluating” the “operational approach to implementing the President’s direction” in light of the executive order ending Hong Kong's special trade status (see 2007150054), a CBP spokesperson emailed July 16. “The EO instructs agencies to commence appropriate actions within 15 days,” the spokesperson said. “We’ll be able to share more information soon.”
CBP does not have the authority to extend deadlines for filing protests so that importers can claim refunds of Section 301 tariffs on goods granted exclusions well after liquidation, though a path to refunds may be possible via the reconciliation process, Ana Hinojosa, executive director of CBP’s trade remedy and law enforcement division, said during the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee's July 15 meeting.
A nearly $3.5 million penalty case against an apparel importer will proceed, after the Court of International Trade on July 14 denied the importer’s bid to dismiss a second attempt by the government to collect. CIT had dismissed the government’s case in November because it did not allege with enough specificity the connection between Greenlight Organic’s owner, Sonny Aulakh, and the purported misclassification and double invoicing schemes that led CBP to assess $3,232,032 for customs fraud plus $238,516.56 in unpaid duties on both Greenlight and Aulakh (see 1911260047). It did allow the government to file another complaint to add more information. This time, additional information on the alleged schemes and their participants included in the second complaint were enough to get the case over the hump so it can progress to more detailed arguments, CIT said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories from July 6-10 in case they were missed.