The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Sept. 9 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
A district court judge in Massachusetts sentenced Chinese national Shuren Qin to two years in prison for exporting hydrophones with anti-submarine applications to a Chinese military university on the Commerce Department's Entity List, in a Sept. 1 sentencing memorandum. Judge Denise Casper carried out the sentencing and also ruled that Qin will be placed on supervised release for two years following his prison sentence and will pay a fine of $20,000 (United States v. Shuren Qin, D.C. Mass. #18-10205).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP “NY” rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Commerce Department dropped a particular market situation adjustment from a sales-below-cost test in an antidumping duty investigation, in its remand results filed at the Court of International Trade, concurrent with a court decision instructing it to do so. The agency maintains that a PMS existed for South Korean steel inputs but concedes that the court's interpretation of the law does not permit an adjustment to the cost of production for the PMS in the sales-below-cost test. The remand rate dropped for mandatory respondent Hyundai Steel Co. from 30.85% to 12.92% and for non-examined respondent SeAH Steel Corp. from 19.28% to 9.99% (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. #18-00154).
Craft dowels from Greenbrier International and Family Dollar Services are covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on wood mouldings and millwork from China (A-570-117/C-570-118), the Commerce Department said in a Sept. 7 scope ruling. Dowels are named in the scope as subject merchandise, and no exemption exists for wood products used in arts and crafts, Commerce said.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP “NY” rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a mandate Sept. 7 in a case in which it dismissed the proceedings due to a lack of jurisdiction. In its July 14 opinion, the Federal Circuit said that the Court of International Trade was correct in dismissing an importer's challenge of CBP's assessment of antidumping and countervailing duties (see 2107140028). The plaintiff, TR International Trading Co., erred when it filed its case under the trade court's Section 1581(i) "residual" jurisdiction, since it could have challenged a denied protest under Section 1581(a) or a scope ruling under Section 1581(c), rendering Section 1581(i) unavailable, the appellate court said. In particular, TRI challenged CBP's finding that the company's citric acid imports from India were of Chinese origin and subject to AD/CV duties (TR International Trading Company, Inc. v. United States, CIT #19-00022). CAFC ordered TRI to pay court costs totaling $28.32 to the U.S. government.
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps' Court of International Trade case challenging CBP's antidumping and countervailing duty evasion finding should continue, even though the relevant entries have liquidated, because the lawsuit was properly filed under Section 1581(c), the company said in a Sept. 1 reply brief. Responding to a partial motion to dismiss from the Department of Justice, Dr. Bronner's said that since the Enforce and Protect Act, under which the evasion finding was made, is codified under 19 USC 1517, the proper jurisdiction for its challenge of an EAPA investigation is Section 1581(c) (All One God Faith, Inc., et al. v. United States, CIT #20-00164).
Small decorative tiles imported by Maryland Mosaics for use in arts and craft projects are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on ceramic tile from China (A-570-108/C-570-109), the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling released Sept. 1. Though Maryland Mosaics argued that the AD/CVD orders were meant to cover tiles used in construction, Commerce disagreed, pointing to language in the scope covering all ceramic tiles regardless of end use.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP “NY” rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York: