The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 24 - March 1:
CBP added on Feb. 25 the ability in ACE for importers to file entries with recently excluded goods in the first tranche of Section 301 tariffs, it said in a CSMS message. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative recently added four new exclusions from the first tranche of goods and updated Harmonized Tariff Schedule classifications from that tranche that expired (see 2002100014). The product exclusions and amendments apply retroactively to July 6, 2018, the date the tariffs on the first list took effect, and will remain in effect until Oct. 2, 2020.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 24-28 in case they were missed.
CBP added on Feb. 14 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. The official Office of the U.S. Trade Representative notice for the exclusions was published on Feb. 5 (see 2001020035). The exclusions are in subheading 9903.88.38. The exclusions are available for any product that meets the description in the Annex to USTR’s notice, regardless of whether the importer filed an exclusion request. The product exclusions apply retroactively to Sept. 24, 2018, and will expire after Aug. 7, 2020. The CSMS message also includes a summary of Section 301 duties and that shows information on each tranche of tariffs and granted product exclusions.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is finalizing a new de minimis exemption from Lacey Act declaration requirements for importers. Under the final rule, importers will not have to submit declarations for products with minimal amounts of plant material, with limitations also set on the total amount of plant material on an entry line. The final rule takes effect April 1.
The International Trade Commission recently issued Revision 4 to the 2020 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, adding new exclusions from Section 301 tariffs and amending units of quantity for a pair of subheadings for U.S. goods returned under Chapter 98. New U.S. Note 20(ss) is added for the new exclusions, as announced by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Feb. 19 (see 2002190015). New subheading 9903.88.40 is created for goods entered under the new exclusions, and conforming changes are made elsewhere to Chapter 99 provisions on Section 301 tariffs. For U.S. goods returned, units of quantity for subheadings 9801.00.1030 and 9801.00.1031 (which cover goods of chapters 71 and 82, respectively) are changed to a footnote that says quantities should be reported in the units provided in chapters 1-97. Previously the units were “No. and g” and “No. and kg,” respectively.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 17-23:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Feb. 18-21 in case they were missed.
The Commerce Department issued a notice in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigation on difluoromethane (R-32) from China (A-570-121). The agency will determine whether imports of merchandise subject to this investigation are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The period of investigation is July 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2019.
Tracking devices that use the Global Positioning System should be classified differently from smartwatches and other Bluetooth-connected devices that rely on a smartphone connection, CBP said in two recently released rulings. The Sept. 30 rulings both involve Globalstar products that use GPS signals and provide location updates. Neville Petersen lawyer Michael Tomenga requested the rulings for Globalstar, and said the trackers should be classified based on the wireless transceivers, similar to fitness tracking devices (see 1603070028).