Finished chassis imported by Pitts Enterprises that include Chinese-origin axles and landing gears are covered by antidumping and countervailing subsidy duties on chassis from China, the Commerce Department said in a Jan. 10 scope ruling.
Country of origin cases
The U.S. fined German software company SAP SE more than $200 million for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, saying it bribed government officials in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia and Azerbaijan to secure business contracts. The company agreed to a nearly $100 million settlement with the SEC and faces a $118.8 million criminal penalty, along with a forfeiture, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Jan. 3 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):
President Joe Biden renewed the nominations of Joseph Laroski and Lisa Wang to the Court of International Trade after the original nominations were returned to the president due to inaction in the full Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee in September approved the nominations of Wang, assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance, and Laroski, partner at Schagrin Associates, with votes of 12-9 and 18-3, respectively (see 2309140054). When forwarded for Senate confirmation, no action was taken in 2023.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
An importer's entries are subject to Section 232 tariffs because the vessel arrival date transmitted in ACE by the ship's captain came after the tariffs took effect on June 1, 2018, despite the importer's claim -- backed by different documentation -- that the goods actually arrived in port and had a date of entry prior to that date, CBP said in a recent ruling.
The Court of International Trade in a Jan. 8 text-only order denied Florida man Zhe "John" Liu's motion to amend the protective order in a customs penalty case against Liu and his company GL Paper Distribution. The U.S. said the motion was another attempt to get around the limits of discovery in a separate criminal proceeding against Liu (United States v. Zhe "John" Liu, CIT # 22-00215).
The Commerce Department on remand altered its analysis on whether an additional allotment of traceable carbon emissions credits in South Korea constituted a financial contribution. Submitting remand results to the Court of International Trade on Jan. 5, Commerce said that the South Korean government's decision to distribute additional free allowances of carbon emissions credits constitutes a "direct transfer of funds," rather than revenue forgone by the foreign government (Hyundai Steel Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00170).
CBP found no substantial evidence that Muller Import Inc. and U.S. Castings Inc. evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on cast iron soil pipe and cast iron soil pipe fittings from China via transshipment through India, the agency announced Dec. 22.