The House could pass the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill in the first week or so following a return from recess after Labor Day "if they think that they can get it passed and get it through the president to sign," said Jon Kent, a lobbyist for the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America with Kent & O'Connor. One potential issue could be inconsistency concerns within the administration over tariff cuts on many goods that come from China as other tariffs are being added under Section 301 and other trade remedies, Kent said.
Drawback
A duty drawback is a refund by CBP of the duties, taxes, or fees paid on imported goods, which were imposed upon importation as prescribed in 19 U.S.C. 1313(d). More broadly, a drawback also includes the refund or remission of other excise taxes pursuant to other provisions of law.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
Drawback seems to be an area of growing interest for companies worried about the new tariffs, said Doug Zuvich, a partner in KPMG's Trade and Customs Services group, during an Aug. 20 webinar hosted by KPMG. "What's really important about this, whether you manufacture or you're just distributing, exporting the products, you can get your refunds back even if it's not the same products that you export. It could be domestic products," he said. "So some companies are using this strategically, and where they have multiple decentralized businesses, they're actually looking at which of the businesses are exporting similar-type products and which are importing, and they're actually strategically matching them up. Other companies that we know of are looking at acquisitions and ways to take advantage of this because it's a significant way to get ahead of these duties."
CBP will hold monthly calls about drawback filing under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, the agency said in a CSMS message. "The calls will take place on the last Wednesday of each month, August 29th to February 27th from 1:00 pm -- 2:00 pm Eastern Time," CBP said. The call-in number is 1-877-873-8017 and the code is 6215791. Drawback questions can go to Randy.mitchell@cbp.dhs.gov.
CBP denied a request from the Distilled Spirits Council for more time to comment on the agency's proposed rules for drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (see 1808020049). The DSC requested an additional 15 days to comment beyond the current deadline of Sept. 17. "CBP wants to receive your input on the proposed regulations," said Alice Kipel, executive director of CBP's Office of Trade Regulations and Rulings, in the denial. "Unfortunately, CBP is unable to grant your request for additional time, as there is a need to finalize a rule prior to the statutory deadline of February 23, 2019," she said.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 13-17 in case they were missed.
CBP mistakenly included "an exemption for drawback claims for wine which included an imprecise reference" within the agency's proposed rules for drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (see 1808020049), CBP said in a notice. CBP said it inadvertently referenced a section that "implements the statutory prohibition on double drawback." As "evident from the entirety of the proposed rule," that paragraph, "applies to all drawback claims for wine," the agency said.
CBP will accept comments on its proposed rules for drawback under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act until Sept. 17, the agency said in its notice published in the Aug. 2 Federal Register. The text of the noticed was released on July 27 (see 1807270024) and the drawback industry is looking closely at the proposal. "We are still in the many stages of review, we do know that there will be considerable comments that are made from all different trade groups," said Dave Corn, vice president of Comstock and Theakston, in an Aug. 2 email. "Among the big concerns is the change for excise taxes, transfers of merchandise, tracking new definitions throughout the package, etc. Now that we know comments are due September 17th, the big push will begin to complete a thorough review."
The Court of International Trade should still force the government to issue an interim final rule on drawback calculations even though CBP released its proposed drawback regulations under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act on July 27 (see 1807270024), drawback filers and importers said in a filing that same day. "This Court can and should compel the required agency action by directing defendants to publish the required calculation regulation, and any other portion of the regulations required to make it effective, as an interim final rule, with immediate effect. (Alternatively, the Court can simply declare all of the [notice of proposed rulemaking] to be in force as an IFR,)" the companies said in the filing.
CBP posted its proposed rulemaking on drawback regulations under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act. The 444 pages of proposed rules are scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Aug. 2, with comments due 45 days after that. Among the contentious issues involved was how the rules would treat distilled spirits in terms of substitution drawback (see 1708090043).