A Los Angeles-based wholesale clothing importer and two of its executives were sentenced on Sept. 29 for avoiding payment of over $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced.
A sterling silver bracelet that underwent production in the U.S. before being shipped to India to undergo additional processing is still considered as having U.S. origin and is thus exempt from duties, CBP recently ruled in NY N350026.
Taiwan has rejected the idea of a 50-50 split in chip manufacturing recently proposed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (see 2509290046).
Pharmaceutical tariffs were not applied on Oct. 1, as previously threatened by the Trump administration (see 2509250066), to give companies time to continue negotiating and begin on-shoring their manufacturing, according to recent statements by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
CBP has released its Oct. 1 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 40), which includes the following ruling action:
Given the White House's focus on trade enforcement, Customs rulings have become a way for importers to ensure they are following trade regulations appropriately.
President Donald Trump posted on social media that U.S. soybean growers are hurting "because China is, for 'negotiating' reasons only, not buying. We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers. I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN!"
Pfizer announced that, after agreeing to expand manufacturing and change its pricing strategy, its imported drugs will not be tariffed.
Two Colorado companies and their top executives were indicted last month for conspiring to evade tariff payments on their imports of forklifts, DOJ announced on Sept. 30. The companies, Endless Sales and Octane Forklifts; current executives Brian Firkins and Jeffrey Blasdel; and former executive J.R. Antczak allegedly conspired to undervalue the forklifts from China at entry, then hide their Chinese origin and sell them to federal government agencies by declaring them to be made in the U.S.
Tariff preferences for sub-Saharan African countries and two of the three tariff preference programs for Haiti ended Oct. 1. In a hallway interview at the Capitol, Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said that he "would love to [renew both] retroactively."