The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service needs to rethink “exorbitant” and “unfair” fee increases for agricultural quarantine and inspection services, according to a July 24 letter from 27 trade associations including the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America and the American Apparel & Footwear Association. The agency should withdraw the proposed rules it issued in April on AQI and overtime fee rates (see 14042321) so that industry can review the underlying data, they said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 21-27:
A bonded carrier of merchandise imported under a transportation and exportation entry is only responsible for ensuring delivery, but CBP may ask for documents showing exportation in order to prove the merchandise was delivered, said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on July 28 as it affirmed a judgment against C.H. Robinson. The carrier had been ordered by the Court of International Trade in 2012 to pay $106,407.86 in unpaid duties, taxes and interest for a shipment of wearing apparel from China that was allegedly diverted into the U.S. while en route to Mexico. The Appeals Court agreed that the CF 7512s stamped by a Laredo customs broker at an unmonitored CBP facility aren’t enough to prove C.H. Robinson fulfilled its responsibility to deliver the merchandise.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website July 28, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.
The Energy Department is amending its energy efficiency standards for residential furnaces and direct heating equipment to implement court orders stemming from two challenges of the standards in District of Colombia U.S. District Court. DOE’s final rule replaces the 2011 version of it regulations on non-weatherized gas furnaces and mobile home gas furnaces with an earlier version it issued in 2007. Compliance with the 2007 regulations will be required by Nov. 19, 2015. The final rule also removes energy efficiency standards for vented gas hearth direct heating equipment
The “Two for One” Earned Import Allowance Program is still failing to stop a steep decline in apparel exports from the Dominican Republic to the U.S., said the International Trade Commission in its annual report on the program released on July 25. Just as the American Apparel and Footwear Association had reported in April, the ITC found that 2013 imports of apparel from the Dominican Republic were down 76% in 2013 from a year earlier. Only 5 out of 12 companies registered for the program actually used it in 2013, down from 7 out of 12 the prior year. The ITC again made the same three recommendations on how to fix the program, which allows duty free access for Dominican Republic apparel exporters that use U.S. fabric: lowering the two-for-one ratio of U.S. to foreign fabric to a one-for-one ratio; including other types of fabrics and apparel items in the program; and changing the requirement that dyeing, finishing, and printing of eligible fabrics take place in the U.S.
The Commerce Department published notices in the July 28 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department is beginning an anticircumvention inquiry to examine whether imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film made in Bahrain from inputs sourced from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India are circumventing antidumping duties on PET film from the UAE (A-520-803). A group of domestic PET film manufacturers alleges JBF RAK in the UAE is providing the inputs to JBF Bahrain S.P.C., and says the resulting product should still be considered to be of UAE origin and subject to AD duties. Commerce’s preliminary results are due in May 2015. If at that time the agency preliminarily finds circumvention, it will suspend liquidation and require cash deposits on the PET film JBF makes in Bahrain from UAE and Indian-origin inputs.
Pocket door tracks imported by Five Lakes Trading are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, said the Commerce Department in a scope ruling issued July 22. The pocket door tracks are made of 6063 aluminum alloy, which is covered by the scope of duties, and are only drilled and cut to length, which are covered fabrication operations, said Commerce. Also, the pocket door tracks are parts of door frames, which are specifically identified in the language of the scope. Five Lakes “submitted no argument or rationale as to why it believes pocket door tracks are not subject merchandise,” said Commerce.
Ferritic alloy steel pipe imported by U.S. Metals is not subject to duties on large diameter carbon and alloy seamless standard, line and pressure pipe (over 4 1/2 inches) from Japan (A-588-850), said the Commerce Department in a scope ruling issued July 24. The ferritic alloy pipe meets the scope’s exemption for ASTM A-335 pipe that is not intended for an application that would normally utilize pipe produced to ASTM A-106 specifications, said Commerce. Pipe produced to A-106 standards can only withstand temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees, said Commerce. The ferritic alloy pipe imported by U.S. Metals can withstand much higher temperatures, and is meant for applications in power plants and oil refineries that require its higher temperature tolerance, said Commerce. Additionally, the pipe is 50-100% more expensive than A-106 pipe, making it uneconomical to use the A-335 pipe imported by U.S. Metals for A-106 applications, said Commerce.