The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 4-10:
The withdrawal of an exemption from solar cells safeguards for bi-facial cells is still on hold, after the Court of International Trade on Nov. 7 issued a temporary restraining order blocking implementation until at least Nov. 21. The court’s order bars the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and CBP from withdrawing the exclusion from safeguard duties or modifying the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to end the exemption. Though it expires Nov. 21, the temporary restraining order may be renewed or replaced by a more permanent preliminary injunction that is currently being considered by CIT. The withdrawal of the exclusion for bi-facial solar cells was initially supposed to take effect Oct. 28 (see 1910080054), before a legal challenge filed by Invenergy and joined by the Solar Energy Industries Association prompted a delay of the withdrawal (see 1911050034).
CBP added on Nov. 7 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the third tranche of Section 301 tariffs, it said in a CSMS message. Filers of imported products that were granted an exclusion (see 1910240004) should report the regular Chapters 29, 32, 37, 39, 40, 48, 51, 54, 56, 58, 59, 60, 68, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 90 and 94 Harmonized Tariff Schedule number, as well as subheading 9903.88.33, CBP said in the message. “Importers shall not submit the corresponding Chapter 99 HTS number for the Section 301 duties when" subheading 9903.88.33 is submitted, CBP said.
In the Nov. 6 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 53, No. 40), CBP published notices that propose to revoke or modify rulings and similar treatment for garments with overlays and women's shirts with partial openings.
The U.S Trade Representative issued some new product exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on the third list of products from China, granting exemptions for two 10-digit tariff subheadings, according to a pre-publication copy of a notice posted to the agency’s website Nov. 7. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 24, 2018 the date the tariffs on the third list took effect, and will remain in effect until Aug. 7, 2020. New subheading 9903.88.34 will be used for these products.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a new set of product exclusions from the 25 percent Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. The exclusions include products from the third list of Section 301 goods. The new exclusions "are reflected in 2 ten-digit HTSUS subheadings and 34 specially prepared product descriptions, which cover 42 separate exclusion requests," according to the notice.
NEW YORK -- A former WTO appellate body panelist criticized the administration's trade policies as chaotic and ineffective and former U.S. Trade Representative General Counsel Stephen Vaughn defended them, while a top WTO official tried to see the good in both arguments. They were all speaking on the state of world trade at an International Trade Symposium co-sponsored by Finastra and The Economist on Nov. 6.
CBP created Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1918 on Oct. 31, containing 2,573 Automated Broker Interface records and 539 Harmonized Tariff Schedule records, it said in a CSMS message. The update includes recently announced changes to the Generalized System of Preferences (see 1910280044).
The International Trade Commission quietly re-added an exemption from solar safeguard tariffs for bi-facial cells to the tariff schedule in its most recently issued edition. Not found in the ITC’s usual change record for Revision 16 (see 1911010048), the unannounced amendment implements the Court of International Trade’s short-term extension to the effective date of the exclusion’s withdrawal (see 1910290033 and 1910080054). The exclusion had been removed in Revision 15 of the tariff schedule, issued only days earlier (see 1910250028). The exclusion could soon again be taken out, as the effective date of the withdrawal was only delayed to Nov. 8. CIT is set in the coming days to rule on whether to issue a temporary restraining order stopping the government from withdrawing the exemption and again taking it out of the tariff schedule. Invenergy Renewables, the company that filed the challenge of the exclusion’s withdrawal, has also requested a preliminary injunction to the same effect.
CBP should take action to improve issues of inadequate desk space, exam formats and question structures, among other things, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in an Oct. 31 letter to the agency. The NCBFAA sent the letter after soliciting comments from those who took the October customs broker license exam, it said. The lack of desk space was the more frequent complaint, due the required use of the printed Harmonized Tariff Schedules and the Customs Regulations. "There can be no doubt that the space limitation had a material adverse effect on the outcome of the examination," the NCBFAA said. "This issue must be remedied for future examinations." CBP should also work with the proctoring company to "create a uniform testing experience in an optimal testing environment," the NCBFAA said. CBP didn't immediately comment.