Harmonized Tariff Schedule

The Court of International Trade ruled in a March 21 opinion that a customs spat over reimported swimsuits will head to phase two of trial. After sorting through whether a Warehousing Agreement between two related companies sufficed as a lease or similar use agreement during the first phase, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves ruled that this condition was satisfied for classification under a duty-free tariff provision for U.S. goods returned. The court will now see if the remaining conditions are satisfied in order to grant SGS Sports duty-free treatment of the reimported swimwear.

Two chainsaw chain and blade importers, TriLink Saw Chain and TriLink Global, agreed to pay $525,000 to settle allegations that the companies misclassified their imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa said. The U.S. alleged that the importers purposely classified their chain saw chains and blades from September 2018 through June 2019 under the wrong Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading to avoid paying Section 301 China tariffs -- a violation of the False Claims Act.

House leaders had thought there could be a vote to remove Russia's permanent normal trade relations status on March 16, but both the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee and the majority leader, who schedules bills for a vote, said that text that is accepted by both parties is nearly done. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, told International Trade Today during a press call that the text just needs to be finished so that there can be "a chance to brief our members in the House before it goes to a vote."

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., speaking at an event about his proposal to remove Chinese exports' eligibility for de minimis, suggested that if the provision does not pass as part of a compromise China package, he's got a Plan B. The language in his bill says that de minimis won't be available to any non-market economy that's on the priority watch list. "Now, coincidentally, that's just China," Blumenauer said with a grin during the Rethink Trade webinar March 9.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 28 - March 6:

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer said that although the House will vote to endorse the administration's decision to ban oil, natural gas and coal imports from Russia, ending Russia's normal trading status will not be part of the legislation. He said he expects a vote before House Democrats leave for a retreat at noon on March 9.

A bipartisan bill was introduced March 1 in the Senate to revoke normal trading relations with Russia "and other countries that invade sovereign nations." The next day, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee introduced his own version, which echoes the House bill, in that it not only revokes permanent normal trade relations, it also suggests that the U.S. delegation to the World Trade Organization work to convince other countries to expel Russia from the WTO.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:​

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 21-27:

U.S. importers made smartphone shipments to the U.S. a nearly $60 billion business in 2021, with the highest yearly dollar volume since 2007, when handsets began to be tracked in Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8517.12.00, according to Census Bureau data recently accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb portal. Inflationary trends from supply chain woes and semiconductor shortages, plus a higher mix of 5G-enabled handsets with higher average value, likely fueled the record-high dollar volume.