CBP announced the calendar year 2020 tariff-rate quota for tuna in airtight containers, in a notice. It said 15,881,292 kilograms of tuna in air-tight containers may be entered and withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during 2020, at the rate of 6% under HTS subheading 1604.14.22. Any such tuna that is entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption during the current calendar year in excess of this quota will be dutiable at the rate of 12.5% under HTS subheading 1604.14.30.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on prestressed concrete steel wire strand (PC strand) from Argentina (A-357-822), Colombia (A-301-804), Egypt (A-729-804), Indonesia (A-560-837), Italy (A-475-843), Malaysia (A-557-819), the Netherlands (A-421-814), Saudi Arabia (A-517-806), South Africa (A-791-826), Spain (A-469-821), Taiwan (A-583-868), Tunisia (A-723-001), Turkey (A-489-842), Ukraine (A-823-817), and the United Arab Emirates (A-520-809), and its recently initiated countervailing duty investigation on Turkey (C-489-843).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 4-10:
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative announced a new round of Section 301 tariff exclusions (see 2005110005) that includes some medical supplies that were included in the fourth tranche of tariffs.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued another set of product exclusions from the fourth group of Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. The new exclusions from the tariffs include "three 10-digit HTSUS subheadings and five specially prepared product descriptions, which together respond to 27 separate exclusion requests," according to the notice. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 1, 2019, the date the fourth set of tariffs took effect. The exclusions will remain in effect until Sept. 1.
Used clothing need not have fabric that is stressed or deteriorated from continued use to be classified as worn clothing in the tariff schedule, the Court of International Trade said in a May 6 decision that runs counter to more than two decades of CBP rulings and guidance on the subject.
Juice “bottle toppers” that depict the heads of popular children’s characters are classifiable in the tariff schedule as lids, not as toys, the Court of International Trade said in a May 5 decision. Good2Grow, the importer, argued that the bottle toppers are classifiable in a duty-free provision of Chapter 95, but CIT found that a note excluding kitchenware, tableware, bed linens and similar articles with utilitarian functions from classification in that chapter applies to all goods with a primarily utilitarian purpose, and not just festive articles.
The Commerce Department seeks public comments on any subsidies, including stumpage, paid by certain countries that exported softwood lumber to the U.S. between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2019. Comments are due June 5. The Softwood Lumber Act of 2008 requires Commerce to submit a report every 180 days on any subsidy provided by nations exporting softwood lumber or softwood products to the U.S., including subsidies for stumpage. Commerce is seeking input on subsidies paid by countries whose exports composed at least 1 percent of total U.S. softwood imports by quantity, as classified under tariff schedule subheadings 4407.10.01, 4407.11.00, 4407.12.00, 4407.19.05, 4407.19.06 and 4407.19.10, the agency said. International Trade Commission Tariff and Trade DataWeb information indicates that four countries -- Brazil, Canada, Germany and Sweden -- exported that much softwood lumber to the U.S. during that six-month period.
The Commerce Department recently posted to its website a list of tariff subheadings that would be subject to its proposed Aluminum Import Monitoring and Analysis System. In the proposed rule, issued April 29 (see 2004280041), Commerce mentioned an “Annex II” listing subject aluminum products, but did not include the annex in the proposal. “If implemented, the Proposed rule would cover basic aluminum products under the following HTS codes: 7601, 7604, 7605, 7606, 7607, 7608, 7609, 7616.99.51.60, and 7616.99.51.70,” Commerce said on its website.
In the April 22 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 54, No. 15), CBP published notices that propose to revoke rulings and similar treatment for instant coffee mixes.