President Joe Biden is again increasing the quantity of solar cells allowed under a Section 201 safeguard tariff-rate quota, he said in a proclamation issued Aug. 12. Retroactively effective for entries on or after Aug. 1, imports up to a 12.5 GW limit will now be allowed in duty-free, up from 5 GW prior to that date.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board determined on Aug. 9 that stopping freight rail service in Canada would not result in an immediate and serious danger to the safety or health of the public. This means that members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) could go on strike as early as Aug. 22 should union members and the two Canadian freight railways, Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Canadian National (CN) fail to negotiate a new labor contract.
Womenswear company Alexis will pay nearly $7.7 million to settle a whistleblower False Claims Act case, which alleged that the company underpaid customs duties on its apparel imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Aug. 9.
CBP has released its Aug. 7 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 31), which includes the following ruling actions:
As CBP deploys measures to ensure de minimis compliance among importers, there are some big-picture items that the agency and Congress need to consider to enable scalability or prevent loopholes, according to Lenny Feldman, managing partner with Sandler Travis.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., formally unveiled a widely anticipated bipartisan bill Aug. 8 that would restrict foreign goods from eligibility for de minimis shipments.
Three wildlife advocacy groups took to the Court of International Trade on Aug. 8 to contest the collective failure of the Commerce, Treasury and Homeland Security departments and the National Marine Fisheries Service to ban fish or fish products exported from fisheries that don't meet U.S. bycatch standards under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) (Natural Resources Defense Council v. Gina Raimondo, CIT # 24-00148).
CBP announced the calendar year 2024 tariff rate quota for tuna in airtight containers. It said 15,226,726 kilograms of tuna in airtight containers may be entered and withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during 2024, at the rate of 6% under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 1604.14.22. Any such tuna that is entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the current calendar year in excess of this quota will be dutiable at the rate of 12.5% under HTS subheading 1604.14.30.
DHS has added five more entries to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, bringing the total up to 73 entities flagged by U.S. officials for allegedly using forced labor by Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
Texas-based freight forwarder Sealink International (SLI) illegally sold the cargo of California-based exporter Triple L Global (TLG) to an unknown buyer without permission and without the required 10-day written notice, TLG alleged in a complaint filed with the Federal Maritime Commission this week.