Members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend that CBP beef up its communications with the trade by providing more transparency over when CBP updates the FAQs that the agency has been using to inform the trade on how it's implementing new tariffs.
Pharmaceutical tariffs, which President Donald Trump said are coming soon, loomed over a seminar on fragile supply chains for medicines, but both the hosts at the think tank and the guests agreed, they will neither reduce dependency on imports nor solve shortages.
Vietnam and the Philippines are the Southeast Asian countries closest to a trade deal with the U.S., said a former assistant U.S. trade representative on a webinar hosted by the Asia Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on June 17.
Texas-based industrial equipment supplier Unicat was ordered to pay $1,655,189.57 in unpaid duties to CBP after it illegally evaded tariffs on imported chemical catalysts. The company’s former CEO, Mani Erfan, “devised and implemented a tariff avoidance scheme” in which the company falsely understated the value of its imported catalysts and the duties owed to CBP, DOJ said. The company sourced most of its catalysts from China, the agency said.
The Comfy, a "wearable, oversized item covering the front and back with a hood, sleeves, ribbed cuffs, and a marsupial pocket," is a pullover and not a blanket, the Court of International Trade held on June 16. Issuing a decision after a five-day bench trial held last year, Judge Stephen Vaden said, as a matter of fact, The Comfy doesn't protect against "extreme cold," and that, as a matter of law, the item fits under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 6110, which provides for pullovers.
The importer seeking class certification at the Court of International Trade to obtain refunds for tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act voluntarily dismissed its case June 16. Counsel for the importer didn't respond to a request for comment (Chapter1 v. United States, CIT # 25-00097).
The number of audits doubled from April to May, with CBP conducting 67 audits that identified $139 million in duties and fees from imported goods improperly declared, according to the agency's May monthly update released June 17.
CBP is preparing ACE to handle calculating estimated duties from entry summaries that might have more than two Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes attached, according to the agency's latest ACE development and deployment schedule for June.
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President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters as he flew back a day early from the Group of 7 summit in Canada, called both Japan and the EU tough negotiators, but said there's a chance that a deal can be arrived at with Japan.