The American subsidiary of a Japanese chemical and industrial materials producer will pay about $416,000 to settle charges that it illegally imported hydrofluorocarbons, EPA announced March 21. The agency said Resonac America Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Resonac Corp., illegally imported 6,208 pounds of HFCs on three separate occasions in 2023 at the Port of Los Angeles, and it failed to notify EPA about another shipment that was planned for February.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 11-17:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website March 18, 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 March 20 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 11). While it contains recent court decisions, no customs rulings are included.
New USDA Agricultural Marketing Service National Organic Program requirements are mandatory starting on March 19, CBP said in a CSMS message on March 19. The message reminded the trade public of the USDA Strengthening Organic Enforcement final rule on January 2023 that required electronic National Organic Program import certificates for organic agricultural products (see 2301180051).
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 Court of International Trade on March 18 said that the U.S. waited too long to send surety firm Aegis Security Insurance Co. a bill for an unpaid customs bond on Chinese garlic imports that entered in 2004. Judge Stephen Vaden said that the government's eight-year delay in demanding the payment from Aegis "was unreasonable and a breach of contract." The court said the delay broke the "reasonable time requirement" -- an "implied contractual term."
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website March 14, 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 is adding an administrative protective order process for companies involved in Enforce and Protect Act investigations to access business confidential information of other "interested parties," so the companies can have full access to CBP's decision-making in a duty evasion investigation, the agency said.
CBP ruled that the fallback method was appropriate for appraising several pharmaceutical products being imported for use in clinical trials. The ruling, dated Feb. 28, looked at three different valuation scenarios, each for pharmaceutical products that were provided to the importer conducting the clinical trial by related companies but were not actually sold.