The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Oct. 26 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):
Country of origin cases
The EU General Court on Oct. 25 annulled the listing of the ex-wife of Alfa Group founder Mikhail Fridman, referred to only as "QF" in the opinion, according to an unofficial translation. Originally sanctioned in April 2022, QF was delisted five months later. The court annulled her original listing. QF claimed the European Council based its decision on evidence lacking probative value and erroneously assessed the facts.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
A horizontal lawnmower engine shouldn't have been included under the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc from China in a Commerce Department scope ruling because it was "clearly excluded" by the scope language, Zhejiang Amerisun Technology said in an Oct. 24 brief at the Court of International Trade (Zhejiang Amerisun Technology Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00011).
A finding of evasion against Skyview Cabinet USA was arbitrary and capricious because CBP failed to establish that the subject wooden cabinets and vanities were covered merchandise at the time they were made and because CBP failed to follow Enforce and Protect Act procedures when it applied adverse inferences, Skyview said in its Oct. 23 opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Skyview Cabinet USA v. U.S., Masterbrand Cabinets Inc., Fed. Cir. # 23-2318).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 23 opinion denied importer PrimeSource Building Products' motion for a partial stay of enforcement of a judgment in its suit against President Donald Trump's expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum duties onto "derivative" products while the decision is on appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court. Judges Jennifer Choe-Groves, M. Miller Baker and Timothy Stanceu said that PrimeSource "has not met its burden of demonstrating its entitlement to a different outcome than that reached by" the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit when that court denied a similar stay bid by the importer.
Noel Quintana and Kelsy Hernandez Quintana, a Florida couple, pleaded guilty on Oct. 19 to conspiring to skirt customs duties on their plywood imports, DOJ announced. Noel also pleaded guilty to one count each of smuggling and violating the Lacey Act, while Kelsey also pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Lacey Act. In all, the Quintanas' scheme allowed them to evade around $42 million in duties, DOJ said.
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 legally found that the Korean government didn't provide a countervailable benefit through its provision of electricity to respondents in the countervailing duty investigation on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Oct. 23. Judges Raymond Chen, Todd Hughes and Tiffany Cunningham said Commerce sufficiently carried out a less-than-adequate-remuneration (LTAR) analysis after its original preferential rate analysis fell short before the appellate court in 2019.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Oct. 26 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on: antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports also are expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.