The Commerce Department issued the preliminary results of the administrative review of the countervailing duty order on corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Korea (C-580-818). The CV rates for all three companies under review were preliminarily found to be de minimis1. These CV rates are not in effect. Commerce may modify them in the final results of this review and change the estimated CV cash deposit rate for these companies.
The President’s Export Council will hold a meeting Sept. 19 at 9:30 a.m. EDT in Washington, D.C. The group will discuss priorities for the 9th World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference; forced localization policies; government procurement; de minimis reform; intellectual property protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement; expansion of the Information Technology Agreement; and export control reform. The meeting will be webcast live (here).
The Food and Drug Administration asked for notification of all imports of laser products so the agency can review admissibility, in an Aug. 12 letter to CBP. That includes informal and Section 321 low value entries, FDA said. The request for CBP notification is in response to mail and courier shipments of laser pointers that have been misdeclared as toys and flashlights to circumvent review, FDA said. The food, drug and device regulator needs to check if the laser pointers meet maximum energy output standards, it said.
CBP will begin enforcing entry requirements on container residue on Nov. 25, and is launching a pilot on the same date that will allow for simplified “residue entries,” it said in a notice set for publication in the Aug. 27 Federal Register. To qualify for residue entry, the residue must fall under thresholds for weight or volume, and must not have any commercial value. Residue entries will be released under modified procedures for low value shipments. Participation in the pilot is not required. All may participate in the pilot and file residue entries, and those that don’t will have to enter container residue under normal entry procedures.
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 15 remanded the final results of the 2009-10 antidumping duty administrative review on activated carbon from China, citing several issues with the average rates assigned to non-individually reviewed “separate rate” companies. Because the rates for the only individually reviewed companies were de minimis, Commerce based the $0.28/kg average rate for seven other companies on rates calculated for different companies in a previous review. That’s too far from the commercial reality of the separate rate companies, the court said. CIT also remanded the Commerce’s decision to use a “specific” per kilogram rate for one of the separate rate companies, as well as the agency’s calculation of surrogate values for inputs.
Difficult customs procedures are among the notable impediments to digital trade, or trade via the Internet, according to a International Trade Commission (ITC) report entitled Digital Trade in the U.S. and Global Economies Part 1 (here). "Customs duties and complicated document preparation and processing can increase the costs associated with small online retail transactions, making it more difficult to conduct online business" especially for small- and medium-sized businesses, it said. The report notes that industry has pointed to low de minimis levels -- the value of an import shipment below which a company does not have to prepare customs documents -- as among the difficulties.
The Commerce Department could still put countervailing duty orders on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador, India, Malaysia, China, and Vietnam, but imports from Indonesia and Thailand will get off scot-free after the Commerce Department found no illegal subsidization by those countries, the agency said in a fact sheet Aug. 13. Commerce found final countervailing duty rates of 18.16 for China, 10.13 to 13.51 percent for Ecuador, 10.54 to 11.14 percent for India, 10.80 to 54.50 percent for Malaysia, and 1.15 to 7.88 percent for Vietnam. All CV duty rates were found to be de minimis in the Indonesia and Thailand investigations.
The Commerce Department issued the preliminary results of its countervailing duty administrative review on pasta from Italy (C-475-819). The agency found de minimis preliminary CV duty rates for Delverde and Valdigrano. If these findings are continued in the final results, entries of subject merchandise produced and exported by these two companies will not be liable for CV duties, and future entries will not be subject to CV duty cash deposits until further notice. These CV rates are not in effect. Commerce may modify them in the final results of this review and change the estimated CV cash deposit rates for these companies.
The Court of International Trade on July 31 sustained part of the subsidy rate calculated for Hyundai Hysco in the 2009 countervailing duty administrative review of corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from South Korea (C-580-818). Domestic company U.S. Steel challenged the interest rate benchmark used to determine the amount of subsidy Hysco received from a South Korean government loan program. The Commerce Department had compared an agency-constructed monthly average interest rate with the variable rate loan Hysco actually received. It eventually found the loan program to be not countervailable, because the benefit was de minimis. U.S. Steel said Commerce couldn’t use an “artificial” benchmark to value the subsidy. But CIT was “not convinced” that a constructed benchmark is necessarily artificial, and found Commerce’s actions were within agency discretion.
The Food and Drug Administration’s July 29 proposed rule to establish a Foreign Supplier Verification Program would require importers to implement procedures to analyze the hazards associated with the food they import and verify their suppliers’ compliance with applicable regulations. The exact form that verification will take is still up in the air, with FDA proposing two alternative requirements. FDA said it expects foreign suppliers will seek out verification on their own from third parties, which would ease the burden on importers. The agency is also proposing exemptions and modified requirements for small businesses and some foods subject to other food safety regulations.