The additional Section 301 tariffs on goods from the European Union announced late Dec. 30 (see 2012300062) will take effect “with respect to products that are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 12, 2021,” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in a notice. USTR said in a Dec. 30 news release that it would increase the tariffs as part of the ongoing World Trade Organization dispute over Airbus subsidies. The announcement disrupts settlement talks and “exceeds the amount of retaliation authorised by the WTO,” a European Commission spokesperson emailed. “The Commission is analysing the data in detail and will look at all options available on how to respond.”
The Commerce Department is solidifying an exemption from antidumping and countervailing duties on walk behind lawn mowers that creates an “enormous loophole” in the scope that will “ensure that duties are not collected a significant portion of the value of merchandise Commerce will determine has been dumped and subsidized,” according to MTD Products, the domestic manufacturer that requested the investigations on lawn mowers, in comments to Commerce.
The owner and CEO of a New York-based apparel company will spend six months in prison for submitting false invoices to CBP as part of a scheme to underpay duties, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 22 news release. Joseph Bailey of Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced by a judge in Southern New York U.S. District Court after having pleaded guilty in January 2020 to wire fraud and entry of falsely valued goods.
A case on the classification of printed circuit board assemblies used in audio-visual transmission equipment will go to trial, after the Court of International Trade on Dec. 22 found it could not determine whether PCBAs imported by Plexus are principally used for televisions and dutiable at 2.9%, or principally used for other devices, including computers and smartphones, and duty free.
New licensing requirements for aluminum products are now set to begin Jan. 25, 2021, under a Commerce Department final rule creating a new Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. Similar to the Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System in place since 2005, the new scheme requires importers of aluminum or their customs brokers to submit information in an online portal to obtain an automatically issued license, then submit the license number with entry summary documentation.
FDA is extending the period for comments on its proposal to set new record-keeping requirements for foods it deems high-risk, it said in a notice released Dec. 17. Part of its ongoing implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the agency’s proposed rule would require entities at key points in the supply chain to keep records of certain high-risk foods as they move through the supply chain, and also more general records of their traceability record-keeping program (see 2009220041). Comments on the proposal are now due Feb. 22, 2021.
CBP looks set to issue a proposed overhaul of its regulations on forced labor in the near term, Ana Hinojosa, executive director of CBP’s Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Division, said during the Dec. 16 meeting of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee. Hinojosa said she is “keeping my fingers crossed” that “hopefully in the next 30 days we might see it published.”
A federal grand jury in Houston indicted eight for criminal wire fraud and entry of goods by means of false statements for allegedly evading antidumping and countervailing duties by undervaluation and falsely declaring exporters with lower rates, the Department of Justice said in a Dec. 15 news release.
Four additional jewelry importers will pay more than $860,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit over allegations of misclassification and underpayment of duties, the Department of Justice said in a Dec. 10 news release. Roman & Sunstone, iStar Jewelry, Ansun and Starkes Gems, four related companies based in New Jersey, classified earrings based on the value of pairs or larger groups, instead of the value of single earrings, claiming a lower duty rate than they should have paid had they been correctly classifying the imports, DOJ said.
Golf clubs assembled in Mexico from titanium heads manufactured in Taiwan and carbon fiber shafts from China must be marked products of both, and the value of the shaft is subject to Section 301 tariffs, CBP said in a Dec. 2 ruling. The golf clubs do not undergo a substantial transformation in Mexico nor the required USMCA tariff shift, and both the shaft and head give the golf clubs their essential character, CBP said in ruling HQ H312495, posted to the agency’s ruling database on Dec. 10.