The Commerce Department can’t modify antidumping and countervailing duty rates after a court ruling before first publishing a notice that they’re going to change, the Court of International Trade said in a Sept. 6 decision. In a challenge from an importer of solar cells that was hit with retroactive duty increases for merchandise entered before Commerce’s tardy notice, CIT found the merchandise entered before the notice should be reliquidated at the lower rate that was previously in effect.
Vietnam continues efforts to crack down on the country of origin fraud and transshipment schemes that have become especially more frequent since the ramping up of U.S.-China trade tensions, according to reports in CustomsNews, the self-described “mouthpiece” of Vietnam Customs.
A Miami-based customs broker was recently convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy for his part in a scheme to lie to manufacturers to obtain deeply discounted medical devices intended for export, then divert those devices to customers in the United States. Luis Soto, president of Absolute Freight Services, was convicted after a jury trial where the Justice Department alleged Soto knew his actions as a forwarder contributed to the scheme.
The Texas Supreme Court will take up a case involving the assessment of property taxes on merchandise stored in a foreign-trade zone that CBP had temporarily approved an oil refiner to operate, it said on Aug. 30. PRSI Trading says Harris County, location of Houston and also Foreign-Trade Zone 84, improperly found its subzone was not activated and is set to improperly assess $9 million in property taxes, despite dozens of temporary monthly approvals from CBP.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 26 - Sept. 1:
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species recently adopted widespread changes to international restrictions on trade in plants and wildlife at its triennial Conference of the Parties held Aug. 17-28 in Geneva. Among those changes are an expanded exemption from permit requirements for finished goods, including instruments, made from certain species of rosewood that will take effect sometime in November.
A recent change to the customs regulations that limits the use of substitution drawback on excise taxes is supported by the plain language of the law, and merely closes a “double drawback” loophole that CBP San Francisco erroneously opened in 2004 when it misinterpreted that legal language as it was first enacted, Justice Department lawyers said in a brief filed Aug. 28 with the Court of International Trade.
The Food and Drug Administration threatened to ban a New York-based company from importing food for five years after a series of outbreaks and a purported lack of cooperation from the company. In a warning letter dated Aug. 26, FDA told Agroson’s that it has been connected to three outbreaks of salmonella related to imported papayas, and threatened to put Agroson’s on import alert or debar the company from importing if it doesn’t respond with actions it is taking to correct the violations.
An importer of woodworking and garden tools that stores the tools with a related U.S. company before they are sold to the consumer may use a modified form of deductive value that relies on the price of sales more than 90 days after importation to appraise the merchandise, CBP said in ruling HQ H304125, issued Aug. 2.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 19-25: