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 on July 1 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):
CBP erred when it applied a double substantial transformation test to importer JBF Bahrain's inputs when treaty language explicitly instructed it to use an alternative, JBF argued July 2 (JBF Bahrain v. United States, CIT # 23-00067).
The Court of International Trade on July 9 sustained CBP's finding that importers American Pacific Plywood, InterGlobal Forest and U.S. Global Forest evaded the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on plywood from China through Cambodian manufacturer LB Wood. Judge M. Miller Baker held that all that's required for liability to attach under the Enforce and Protect Act is "the entry of covered merchandise through any material false statement or material omission that avoids antidumping and countervailing duties, except those resulting from clerical errors," noting that even clerical errors are evasion if they are "part of a pattern of negligent conduct." The judge also held that CBP isn't precluded from finding that shipments from LB Wood are of Chinese origin in light of two other CIT cases the agency settled in which it said shipments from LB Wood are of Cambodian origin. Baker said the doctrine of judicial estoppel doesn't apply here, however, since CBP didn't succeed in advancing a position "directly inconsistent" with its theory in the present case, given that its initial position in the two settled cases was identical to its position here "but it then ran up the white flag."
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
In the July 2 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 27), CBP published proposals to revoke ruling letters concerning the tariff classification for certain wireless headphones and earphones and the country of origin of a brake hose.
Importer Ansell Healthcare Products brought a July 3 complaint against the United States saying that, after a “series of clerical errors,” it paid almost $2.4 million in duties and fees on three reconciliation entries when it should have only paid $461.01 (Ansell Healthcare Products v. United States, CIT # 20-003922).
The Court of International Trade on July 3 sustained CBP's finding that importers Newtrend USA, Starille and Nutrawave evaded the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on glycine from China via Indonesia-based exporter PT Newtrend Nutrition Ingredient. Judge Stephen Vaden said CBP adequately supported its finding that PT Newtrend's Indonesian factory couldn't produce all the glycine it shipped to the U.S. and that at least some of the exported glycine was sourced in China.
The Court of International Trade on July 3 denied the International Trade Commission's request to redact five pieces of information from the court's public version of its decision remanding the commission's affirmative injury determination on phosphate fertilizer from Morocco and Russia. Concurrently, Judge Stephen Vaden released the public decision, which said the record "raises serious questions about whether domestic producers were able and willing to supply consumers during the period of review."