A furniture importer and its executives will pay more than $5.2 million to settle a False Claims Act lawsuit on their alleged evasion of antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture by way of misclassification as metal furniture, the Justice Department said in an April 14 press release. Blue Furniture Solutions and its successor, XMillenium, will pay $4,679,987 of that total, while former CEO Yingqing Zeng will pay $460,000 and former CFO Alex Cheng $90,000 to resolve their personal liability, DOJ said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 6-12:
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on lawn mower engines from China (A-570-124/C-570-125). The CV duty investigation covers entries Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019. The AD duty investigation covers entries July 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019.
CBP is requesting comments by May 11 on an existing information collection for foreign assembler's declarations, it said in a notice. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection without a change to the burden hours or information collected.
The draft regulations for auto rules of origin that have been circulating suggest that the rules won't be as flexible or practical as automakers would like, said David Bause, a project manager at MIC Customs Solutions. Bause, who spoke about the new NAFTA on a webinar April 9, used to be a customs manager for General Motors. Bause said stakeholders don't even know what the date of entry into force will be, or if the uniform regulations will be released by then. He said, “Logically one would think the earliest EIF is July 1 at this point, but from what we’re hearing, the U.S. government is still talking about June. Not sure that is technically possible.”
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 30 - April 5:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 30 - April 3 in case they were missed.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on common alloy aluminum sheet from Bahrain (A-525-001), Brazil (A-351-854), Croatia (A-891-001), Egypt (A-729-803), Germany (A-428-849), Greece (A-484-804), India (A-533-895), Indonesia (A-560-835), Italy (A-475-842), South Korea (A-580-906), Oman (A-523-814), Romania (A-485-809), Serbia (A-801-001), Slovenia (A-856-001), South Africa (A-791-825), Spain (A-469-820), Taiwan (A-583-867) and Turkey (A-489-839), and its recently initiated countervailing duty investigation on Brazil (C-351-855), Turkey (C-489-840), Bahrain (C-525-002) and India (C-533-896).
General Motors, noting that its financial resources are strained with a shutdown of vehicle manufacturing, asked the U.S. trade representative last week to lift Section 301 tariffs on eight components it will be importing from China to make ventilators in Kokomo, Indiana. The letter was posted at regulations.gov on April 2.
Doorknobs with keyed, thumbturn locks are classifiable as knobs, not locks, in the tariff schedule, the Court of International Trade said in a March 26 decision that was publicly released April 2. After being directed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to treat the door hardware as composite goods (see 1902190036), CIT found that the knobs give the hardware sets their essential character, classifying them in Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) heading 8502.