Tim Warren

Importers can't make changes to the amount of antidumping or countervailing duties deducted from the transaction value even if there is a difference between the original cash deposit amount and the actual amount subsequently assessed on Delivered Duty Paid entries, CBP said in a May 26 ruling recently released by the agency. The ruling is a result of an internal advice request from the Industrial and Manufacturing Materials Center of Excellence and Expertise about AD/CV duties on entries of softwood lumber, CBP said. The ruling addresses multiple questions involving how and when such AD/CV duties can be deducted from the value based on a "representative entry."

The addition of a second forced labor investigations branch (see 2107210040) within CBP is expected to result in more enforcement actions outside of Asia, Ana Hinojosa, who heads CBP’s Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Directorate, said while speaking at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference Sept. 28. “We are expecting, because we now have two branches, to see a little bit more diversity in where some of the cases originate from,” she said. While Asia will remain a priority within CBP, “I would envision that in this coming year some of the withhold release orders will be focused on cases” in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Sept. 20-24 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will allow a short-term extension for the exclusions on goods used to treat COVID-19 from Section 301 tariffs on goods from China, it said in a notice posted on the agency's website. The exclusions were set to expire Sept. 30, but USTR said it will extend the exclusions for 45 days to give the agency more time to review comments submitted about a longer extension.

Imported Apple products should be subject to a withhold release order and blocked at the ports due to possible involvement of forced labor in China, Campaign for Accountability said in Sept. 27 filing. "The seizure of Apple imports credibly tied to forced labor would be consistent with other recent CBP enforcement actions" and "[t]here is now compelling evidence that Apple iPhones, computers, and other products should be added to the list," the non-profit said in its submission.

CBP released details on the timelines used for responding to allegations of forced labor in a supply chain, in a July 30 report to Congress posted to the Department of Homeland Security website Sept. 22. The timelines “generally reflect the lifecycle of CBP responding to a petition; however, responding to a petition is a law enforcement investigation and not a linear administrative process,” DHS said. As a result, “extraordinarily complicated investigations, case prioritization, available resources, and other significant factors may affect the actual timeline of certain case,” DHS said.

CBP's legislative proposal related to the 21st Century Customs framework may leave out discussion of possible alternative funding sources, said Garrett Wright, who leads the 21CCF effort as director of trade modernization at CBP's Office of Trade. "We are considering decoupling insufficient funding from the rest of this 21CCF package and focusing our efforts on what would be authorizing language," he said. Once "any one of those statutes gets passed, then we can have a conversation with the Hill about how to best fund."

CBP field officers were instructed to allow for foreign-trade zone storage of goods stopped under a withhold release order while an admissibility decision is made, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, speaking at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference Sept. 21. He said the agency told the “field folks to allow those goods” to be put “in a foreign-trade zone under the very tight conditions that we outline.” While Swanson previously said a public guidance would come soon (see 2104290003), he said at the conference that “we're still working on getting it in writing, because there's a lot of legal stuff and there's some changes going on in the background.”

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Sept. 13-17 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

CBP recently updated its frequently asked questions about the withhold release order aimed at silica-based products from China that made a first mention of de minimis considerations (see 2108030026). CBP's revised response to a question about whether finished products containing a small percentage of silica-based products subject to the WRO now says the agency “recognizes there may be some very fact-specific instances, where the question of the contribution of prohibited labor to the whole of a product (from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective) is something that a court might consider with respect to the statutory intent of Section 1307 of Title 19, United States Code.” The updated version also removes any mention of the phrase “de minimis” and an example of a de minimis contribution.