Haptic motors intended to be mounted to a vehicle seat for sending vibrating warning signals to the driver during certain safety conditions are classifiable as electric motors, rather than as signaling equipment for motor vehicles, CBP said in a ruling dated Oct. 18.
Brian Feito
Brian Feito, Managing Editor, International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
Heat-treated aluminum sheet that is made from a proprietary alloy and otherwise meets all scope requirements is covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on common alloy aluminum sheet from China (A-570-073/C-570-074), the Commerce Department said in a recent scope ruling. The “core” layer in Valeo’s clad T-series aluminum sheet is unregistered with the Aluminum Association but can be considered 3-series alloy covered by the scope based on its magnesium content, the agency said.
An importer’s lawsuit against its customs broker for the broker’s alleged failure to stay on top of issues related to some FDA-regulated entries will continue, after a judge of the Western Washington U.S. District Court declined to halt the discovery process in the case. The broker says its terms and conditions cut its liability to a mere $200, but the judge said the importer’s arguments that those liability limits are invalid could be bolstered by more evidence.
A customs broker exam taker who is appealing his failing score is asking the Court of International Trade to overturn CBP’s denial of credit for seven questions from the April 2018 test. In a brief filed Oct. 1, Byungmin Chae says CBP erroneously graded his customs broker exam, denying him a broker license on its mistaken finding that he did not score 75 percent or higher.
Gluten-free pastas made from soybean flour are classifiable in the tariff schedule as pasta of heading 1902, rather than as soybean preparations of heading 2008, said CBP in a recent ruling. Instructing the port to grant the importer’s protest, CBP headquarters ruled that pasta describes food that has undergone a particular manufacturing process, and is not limited to a specific kind of flour.
Entries of appearance to get on Commerce’s new annual service lists for antidumping and countervailing duty scope and anti-circumvention inquiries are due Oct. 27, the agency said in a follow-up notice to its recent final rule (see 2109160058 and 2109160062). Parties on the list will receive notifications of all scope ruling applications and requests for circumvention inquiries.
The Commerce Department released a final rule making extensive changes to its antidumping and countervailing duty regulations, including on scope and anti-circumvention inquiries. Currently scheduled for publication Sept. 20, the final rule is intended to “strengthen the administration and enforcement of AD/CVD laws, make such administration and enforcement more efficient, and to create new enforcement tools for Commerce to address circumvention and evasion of trade remedies.”
More than 190 solar companies sent a letter Sept. 22 to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urging the rejection of requests to begin anti-circumvention inquiries on solar cells and panels from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. “Steep duties proposed by an anonymous group of petitioners would devastate thousands of U.S. solar companies and cause the industry to miss out on 18 gigawatts (GW) of solar deployment by 2023,” the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a press release.
Untethering the six-year statute of limitations for customs bonds from the date an entry is liquidated would impair the ability of customs sureties to function, and CBP’s attempt to collect on a bond issued by Aegis Security Insurance eight years after liquidation is an unreasonable delay that would cause real harm to the surety, Aegis said in a brief filed Sept. 16 at the Court of International Trade.
An anti-circumvention inquiry requested by a U.S. industry coalition amounts to an attempt to impose new antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam without the strictures of real AD/CVD investigations, rather than serving as valid allegations of circumvention of Chinese solar cells duties, two U.S. importers said in a brief filed Sept. 15 asking the Commerce Department not to initiate the inquiries.