The Court of International Trade on Sept. 21 ruled in a customs classification case involving eight different categories of decorative plant parts, siding with importer Second Nature Designs on its preferred classification of two of the categories and with the government on one of the categories. Pertaining to three other categories, Judge Gary Katzmann said that there were fact questions remaining, leading the judge to deny summary judgment and advance litigation to its "second phase."
In the Sept. 13 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 33), CBP published a proposal to revoke a ruling letter concerning a plastic playmat and to modify another on steel wire cartridges.
The Commerce Department on Sept. 1 published its quarterly list of (i) completed antidumping and countervailing duty scope rulings and (ii) anti-circumvention determinations. The following list covers completed scope rulings for the period April 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023:
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) for CBP will next meet remotely Sept. 20, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by Sept. 15.
Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary Alicia Bárcena, on her first trip to Washington, put USMCA first in her list of priorities, saying that in the less than 14 months left in the administration she is part of, she wants "to be able to bring certainty" in the NAFTA replacement, and to engage across all three countries in various sectors. "It's very important to consolidate this very important economic framework, and to make sure even if we are leaving in 13 months that this can remain as a powerful ... mechanism of trade and investment and economic development and partnership," she said at the Atlantic Council Aug. 10.
CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) will next meet June 14 in Arlington, Virginia, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by June 9.
Heat-treated forged steel rods imported by ME Global are properly classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule as "other bars" not further worked than forged, rather than in the importer's preferred classification as "grinding balls and similar articles for mills," the Court of International Trade ruled in a May 2 decision.
In more than four hours of questioning during a hearing March 24 before the House Ways and Means Committee, no member of Congress advocated for lessening tariffs on Chinese goods under Section 301, or for reopening exclusions applications.
A San Diego broker-forwarder will pay $1 million in back wages and a $26,215 penalty for “egregious” violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act under a settlement reached with the Department of Labor to resolve allegations that it was illegally paying workers directly in Mexican pesos, DOL said in a March 20 news release.
Parts of an oil rig well head are properly classified as "other articles of iron or steel" rather than as parts for boring machinery or parts of taps, cocks and valves, CBP said in a recently released ruling the agency had issued in January.