The International Trade Administration has issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on steel wire garment hangers from Vietnam and Taiwan (A-552-812, A-583-849), and (C-552-813). The ITA will determine whether imports of steel wire garment hangers from Vietnam and Taiwan are being, or are likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value, and whether manufacturers, producers, or exporters of steel wire garment hangers in Vietnam receive countervailable subsidies.
The International Trade Administration has issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on utility scale wind towers from China and Vietnam (A-570-981, A-552-814), and C-570-982). The ITA will determine whether imports of utility scale wind towers from China and Vietnam are being, or are likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value, and whether manufacturers, producers, or exporters of utility scale wind towers in China receive countervailable subsidies.
Mexico's Ministry of Economy has published the preliminary determination in its antidumping investigation on imports of chicken leg quarters from the U.S., regardless of country of origin. Mexico preliminarily determined that sufficient evidence exists to support that imports of the products under this investigation were conducted under conditions of dumping, resulting in their increased participation in and causing injury to the domestic market and production of chicken leg quarters.
On January 3, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection updated its ACE ABI Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) for its Chapter on Entry Summary Create/Update in order to correct the Harbor Maintenance Fee (HMF) de minimis value in Entry Summary Filing - Usage Note (o). CATAIR Change Record for 2012 is available here. Entry Summary Create/Update CATAIR Chapter is available here. Download all sections of the CATAIR here.
The International Trade Administration has issued the preliminary results of its administrative review of the antidumping duty order on hand trucks and certain parts thereof from China (A-570-891) for one manufacturer/exporter. This preliminary result is not yet in effect, may change in the final results, and could affect the estimated AD cash deposit rate for this company.
The International Trade Administration has issued the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review of honey from Argentina (A-357-812) for nine companies. These preliminary results are not in effect. They may change in the final results and could affect the estimated cash deposit rate for these companies.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have issued statistics on their fiscal year 2011 intellectual property rights seizures. The statistics show that while the number of seized counterfeit goods has increased since FY 2010, their value has dropped due to an increased number of low-value seizures, including more seizures of express courier and consolidated shipments. The report also shows that FY 2011 is the first time since FY 2005 that footwear was not the top commodity seized and the first time handbags/wallets/backpacks were not on the "Top Commodities Seized" list.
On January 3, 2012, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation posted a press release on the November 2011 announcement by ten APEC member economies that they would set a de minimis value duty exemption that would exempt low-value shipments, including express and postal shipments, from customs duties and streamline entry documentation requirements. APEC states the ten members agreed to implement a de minimis value of at least US$100, offering others the chance to adopt the initiative when ready. According to a recent study by the express carrier industry, setting a $100 de minimis threshold may amount to cost savings for the trade of $19.8 billion per year.
Vietnamese exporters challenged determinations by the International Trade Administration in the AD administrative review of certain frozen warm water shrimp from Vietnam for the February 2007 - January 2008 period. Notably, Viet Hai Seafood Co., Ltd., doing business as Vietnam Fish One Co., Ltd. challenged the ITA’s refusal to revoke the firm’s inclusion in the AD order despite zero dumping margins for three consecutive years. Fish One argued that: 1) the ITA’s regulations obliged it to perform individual reviews of companies requesting revocation based on achieving three years of zero or de minimis dumping margins, 2) the mandatory selection process, which was limited to only three exporters, was flawed and 3) the zero dumping margin it was assigned in the final results entitled it to revocation.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently announced that updates will be made to the CAMIR and ANSI X12 sea and rail interface guidelines that will set the stage for announcing an enforcement date to require residue (such as chemicals or other bulk goods) imported in containers considered to be instruments of international traffic (IIT) to be manifested, classified, and entered. CBP has delayed setting an enforcement date for this requirement since May 2011 pending the ability for Section 321 entries to be electronically filed in the rail mode.