Four models of “accent” chests imported by Ethan Allen are not subject to antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China, said the Commerce Department in a remand redetermination filed “under protest” on Feb. 12. Reversing course from a 2014 scope ruling where it found all four models covered by AD duties (see 14060403), Commerce said all four models are living room furniture, not bedroom furniture, despite continued concerns that they are suitable and sometimes advertised for bedroom use.
Units of curtain walls imported separately for assembly into a finished curtain wall of a building are subassemblies that may be exempt from antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, said the Court of International Trade in a Feb. 9 decision (here). The court ordered the Commerce Department to reconsider a 2014 scope ruling that found Yuanda window wall units are covered by duties because they are imported separately and ineligible for the “finished goods kit” or “finished merchandise” exemption (see 14033128).
International Custom Products recently requested that the U.S. Supreme Court hear its challenge to the constitutionality of the requirement that importers pay duties before filing suit at the Court of International Trade, according to the Supreme Court’s website (here). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in June 2015 that the duty payment for court challenges of denied protest does not violate International Custom Products’ right to due process (see 1506300073). The now-bankrupt importer would have had to pay $28 million to have its case heard at CIT on the classification of white sauce. International Custom Products had argued a CBP notice of action improperly revoked a ruling letter without the required notice and opportunity to comment (see 12121239).
No lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 1-7.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 1-5 in case they were missed.
CBP outlined its recent enforcement work related to antidumping and countervailing duties in an AD/CVD Update for November that includes statistics for fiscal year 2015 (here). CBP said it "carried out 28,783 entry summary reviews on potential AD/CVD violations and identified over $29 million in AD/CVD noncompliance." Products associated with the most AD/CVD violations during FY2015 were tires, solar cells, and pencils, CBP said. The agency said its lawyers were involved in over 350 AD/CVD cases during the fiscal year and scored several major legal victories. "For example, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed with CBP that sureties are liable for penalty interest" on all customs bonds, including AD/CVD bonds, it said. The agency's Garlic Antidumping Enforcement Team also successfully defended a requirement for additional single transaction bonds with the Court of International Trade. As a result, CBP saw "shipments valued at over $5.8 million exported back to the country of origin as importers did not want to file additional bonds; shipments valued at over $6.9 million exported or destroyed; and shipments valued at over $4 million were released after an importer posted a $1 million bond with CIT," it said. CBP also highlighted the agency's enforcement on steel imports (see 1601250019).
Assemblies of extruded aluminum parts are not covered by the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China, said the Court of International Trade in a Feb. 1 decision (here). Finding irrelevant the question of whether assembled appliance door handles qualified for the “finished merchandise” exemption from duties, CIT Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu found assemblies are not included in the scope of duties in the first place because assembly is not one of the post-extrusion processes – drawing, fabricating and finishing – that are allowed by the scope.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 25-31:
In the Jan. 20 issue of the CBP Customs Bulletin (Vol. 50, Nos. 2 and 3) (here), CBP published notices that propose to revoke or modify rulings and similar treatment for hydraulic braking system parts.
CBP outlined its recent enforcement work related to antidumping and countervailing duties in an AD/CVD Update for October (here). Through August, CBP assessed 17 penalties for AD/CVD violations, with a total value of $4.4 million on a wide range of commodities, it said. CBP highlighted a recent discovery from CBP’s Regulatory Audit, which found "a loss of revenue of $36 million during an audit of importers of tapered roller bearings from China," the agency said. "The company failed to declare and pay AD duties on imported taper roller bearings, resulting in $32.4 million in unpaid duties, along with finding significant classification errors resulting in an additional $3.6 million in penalties. CBP is seeking to collect the duties and penalty amount from the importer." CBP also pointed to a recent $84 million lawsuit against Univar over unpaid antidumping duties for saccharine. "Univar USA misrepresented to U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the country of origin was Taiwan and that the entries were ordinary consumption entries, as opposed to entries subject to antidumping duties," the Justice Department said in the lawsuit in the Court of International Trade.. "In fact, that the true country of origin for the merchandise was China and that the merchandise was subject to anti-dumping duties exceeding 329 percent." DOJ also filed a suit against LBS Marketing that seeks to recover $2.8 million in allegedly evaded antidumping duties on crawfish, said CBP.