The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Oct. 8 said the Court of International Trade improperly rejected the Commerce Department's inclusion of door thresholds imported by Worldwide Door Components and Columbia Aluminum Products in the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. Judges Sharon Prost, Richard Linn and Todd Hughes said Commerce adequately explained on remand that the door thresholds are subassemblies and thus not qualified for the finished merchandise exception.
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 7 sent a customs classification dispute on truck steps to a bench trial after finding that the undisputed facts are insufficient for conducting a principal use analysis on whether the products are "side protective attachments." Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that while a Section 301 exclusion for "side protective attachments" is a principal use provision, and not a provision for an individual product, the court can't at this time properly assess the imports at issue under a principal use framework.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is revising some web links related to phytosanitary treatment and quarantine import regulations so that the regulations reflect APHIS' relocation of import and treatment requirements for agricultural commodities to the Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR) online database. The revision is effective Oct. 1, APHIS said in a notice.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in responses to Senate Finance Committee members, talked about changes needed in USMCA, declined to endorse a permanent e-commerce tariff moratorium and called for more money for CBP, to address Section 301 tariff circumvention.
Texas-based syringe importer Retractable Technologies took to the Court of International Trade to contest the 100% increase of Section 301 tariffs recently imposed on needles and syringes from China. The complaint is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the duties, claiming that the tariffs could send the company out of business (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing the importation of fresh table beet root (Beta vulgaris L.) for consumption from the U.K., it said. APHIS will allow fresh table beet root imports effective Sept. 27, it said in a notice. "Based on findings of a pest risk analysis, which we made available to the public for review and comment through a previous notice, we have determined that the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds via the importation of fresh table beet root from the United Kingdom," APHIS said.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and chairman of the Budget Committee, recently introduced a bill that would allow the administration to impose Section 301 tariffs on goods made outside of China if they are made by Chinese firms.
Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., along with two other Republicans and another Democrat, recently reintroduced the Stop Importation and Manufacturing of Synthetic Analogues (SIMSA) Act.
Economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics said that if the U.S. were to move all Chinese imports into Column 2 of the tariff schedule, removing permanent normal trade relations status, it would increase inflation by four-tenths of a percent if China were to retaliate, and it would hurt manufacturing the most -- the area politicians most want to protect.
An October strike by members of the International Longshoremen Association at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports could result in “devastating impacts” on the supply chain for weeks, consultants and logistics professionals told International Trade Today.