The Court of International Trade on Oct. 15 limited the scope of the testimony that will be offered by two of the government's witnesses in a customs spat on the classification of The Comfy, a wearable blanket imported by Cozy Comfort Co. Judge Stephen Vaden said fashion industry professional Patricia Concannon can testify only on topics related to the "sale, marketing, and merchandising of apparel," and that CBP national import specialist Renee Orsat "may not testify about opinions she formed during the Customs’ classification process."
CBP CROSS Rulings
CBP issues binding advance rulings in connection with the importation of merchandise into the United States. They issue the rulings to give the trade community transparency of how CBP will treat a prospective import or carrier transaction. Common rulings include the tariff classification, country of origin, or free trade agreement applicability of merchandise, among other things. These rulings are available in CBP's Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) database.
CBP has released its Oct. 16 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 41). While it contains recent court decisions, no customs rulings are included.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit last week held that tire retailer Texas Truck Parts & Tire was the "beneficial owner" of tires imported by Chinese manufacturers and, as such, is liable for excise taxes on the imports (Texas Truck Parts & Tire v. United States, 5th Cir. # 23-20588).
Bangladesh is the country of origin for blue surgical towels imported by Global Resources International (GRI), CBP said in a notice. GRI had asked CBP to make a final determination on the surgical towels' country of origin on April 12 for the purposes of U.S. government procurement. The towels are made from 100% cotton huckaback weave fabric from Bangladesh, where the fabric is also woven and dyed blue. It's then shipped to Vietnam in rolls, where it's cut to size, sewn, autoclaved, packaged and shipped to the U.S. Because of these factors, the country of origin is Bangladesh, CBP said, outlining its reasoning in the attached ruling HQ H339826). The surgical towels are classified under subheading 6307.90.89 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S.
CBP has released its Oct. 9 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 40), which includes the following ruling actions:
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 7 denied importer Interglobal Forest's application for attorney's fees in its suit challenging CBP's affirmative finding of evasion of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China. Judge Mark Barnett said that Interglobal wasn't a "prevailing party" in the action because the evasion determination was reversed without admitting to an agency error and only after the Commerce Department reversed its scope finding after separate legal action at the trade court.
Claimed price reductions related to changes in packaging costs for Chinese-origin packaged power units for electronic vaporizing devices may not be considered when determining the transaction value of the imported good, according to a recently released CBP ruling.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Oct. 2, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.
CBP has released its Oct. 2 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 39), which includes the three notifications of information collections. Also included are two U.S. Court of International Trade slip opinions, but no ruling actions.