Whistleblower law firm Mark A. Strauss Law issued a news release April 5 seeking whistleblowers to sign up for a consultation if they have information on customs fraud via the transshipment of Chinese-origin goods through other countries. The news release says whistleblowers can receive awards of 15%-30% of recoveries made under the False Claims Act, and the firm offers a free consultation for anyone that knows of goods subject to the Section 301 tariffs on China goods that are being transshipped through such countries as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan in attempts to skirt the U.S. duties.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated April 5 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):
The Court of International Trade remanded parts of the 2018 countervailing duty review on utility scale wind towers from Vietnam in a March 24 opinion made public April 4. Judge Timothy Reif sent the case back to the Commerce Department for it to address evidence submitted by the CVD petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition over alleged manipulation of the denominators used in the benefit calculation and to substantiate its conclusion that respondent CS Wind Vietnam didn't import its steel plate, thereby neglecting an import duty exemption subsidy.
The Court of International Trade remanded in part and sustained in part the Commerce Department's final results in the 2018 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on utility scale wind towers from Vietnam, in a March 24 opinion made public April 4. Judge Timothy Reif said that on remand Commerce must address evidence presented by CVD petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition of respondent CS Wind Vietnam's alleged manipulation of the denominator used in the benefit calculation and evidence relating to the country of origin of CS Wind Vietnam's steel plate.
An importer is asking the Court of International Trade to direct CBP to reliquidate entries of Chinese citric acid anhydrous that Thatcher says CBP improperly liquidated as subject to antidumping and countervailing duties. In its March 31 complaint, Thatcher said that CBP extended liquidation of the entries with neither a "statutory basis" nor the "legal authority" to do so and without instruction from the Commerce Department (Thatcher Company, Inc. v. United States, CIT #20-00067).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “properly exercised its authority” under the Section 307 modification provisions of the 1974 Trade Act when it ordered the imposition of the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, the Court of International Trade ruled in an April 1 opinion. Test-case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products, plus the more than 3,600 complaints that followed, sought to vacate the tariffs on grounds that lists 3 and 4A were unlawful without USTR launching a new Section 301 investigation.
There is no error in the Commerce Department's liquidation instructions, so importer MS Solar's lawsuit under Section 1581(i), the Court of International Trade's "residual" jurisdiction, should be dismissed, the U.S. said in a March 30 reply brief backing its motion to dismiss. Instead, the case should have been filed under Section 1581(c) to contest the antidumping duty review itself, the brief said (MS Solar Investments v. United States, CIT #21-00303).
CBP is consolidating two Enforce and Protect Act investigations and setting interim measures against Phoenix Metal for alleged evasion of AD and CVD orders A-570-079 and C-570-080 on cast iron soil pipe from China. According to the March 28 notice, the EAPA investigation followed a Feb. 17, 2022, complaint by the Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute that alleged Phoenix Metal acted as importer of record and exported soil pipe covered by the AD/CVD orders to Glendale Plumbing and Fire Supply, Inc. using the Cambodian "front company" Little Fireflies International.
Washington-based importer Keirton USA isn't permitted to import drug paraphernalia since Washington state law doesn't expressly authorize the possession of such items, the U.S. told the Court of International Trade in a March 28 cross-motion for judgment. If the state's current laws did authorize possession of drug paraphernalia, then the mere absence of criminal liability -- the situation in Washington -- would consume the whole statute federally outlawing possession of drug paraphernalia, DOJ said (Keirton USA, Inc. v. United States, CIT #21-00452).
CBP is setting interim measures against six companies for possible evasion of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China. According to a March 10 notice, CBP has determined that there is reasonable suspicion that Uni-Tile, Durian, Kingway, Lonlas, Maikai, and Top Kitchen evaded AD/CVD by transshipping covered merchandise through Malaysia.