The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 17 held that five types of medical foods imported by Nutricia North America are properly classified as "medicaments" and not as "food preparations." Judges Sharon Prost, Richard Taranto and Leonard Stark overruled the Court of International Trade's decision, which came to the opposite conclusion, finding that Nutricia's products are properly found to be medicaments under duty-free Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 3004.50.5040.
As customs brokers and importers respond to sudden changes in U.S. trade compliance regulations, the trade will need to come up with new models that can allow companies to be nimble when those changes trickle down to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, trade expert Cindy Allen said recently at the Automotive Industry Action Group's North American Customs and Trade Town Hall on Nov. 6 in Detroit.
The U.S. is likely to commit to a full renegotiation of USMCA during the trade pact's upcoming sunset review and could even abandon the trilateral agreement in favor of individual ones, according to Miguel Messmacher, former chief economist at the Ministry of Finance of Mexico.
NEW YORK -- Geodis Vice President Ed Fitzgerald and Maytee Pereira, Customs and International Trade co-leader at PwC, told trade compliance professionals that CBP scrutiny is getting stricter.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in two TV interviews, praised the president's trade diplomacy in Asia, and said "a price has got to be paid" for Ontario's ad quoting former President Ronald Reagan in support of free trade.
Asia Society think tank experts, in an analysis of President Donald Trump's visit in Malaysia, Japan and Korea, called the trip very successful.
As CBP ramps up enforcement and seeks to ensure that importers' claims of first sale are valid, expect the agency to pay close attention to the documents of the middleman, said tax consultants with KPMG during an Oct. 27 presentation on first sale at the International Compliance Professionals Association's annual conference in Texas.
CBP erroneously found that importer Superon Schweisstechnik's stainless steel round wires aren't coated in a "flux material" and thus misclassified three types of the wires, Superon argued in an Oct. 30 complaint filed at the Court of International Trade. The importer faulted CBP for using the "conventional test methods" on the wires' coating, "rather than the globally recognized specialized methods necessary for identifying" the type of coating on the wires (Superon Schweisstechnik India v. United States, CIT # 21-00570).
While AI technology providers often tout their ability to classify imported goods, AI might be more useful in helping importers and customs brokers document a large amount of entry data, according to Phillip Poland, who was speaking on an Oct. 22 webinar sponsored by the American Association of Exporters and Importers on AI and reasonable care.
Small businesses have to hike prices more due to imports compared with large companies, and also are likely to face a higher tariff burden because of their lack of leverage with suppliers, according to an analysis published this week by the American Action Forum's Jacob Jensen.