The Commerce Department on June 16 published a countervailing duty order on ceramic tile from India (C-533-929). The order sets permanent countervailing duties, which will remain in place unless revoked by Commerce in a sunset or changed circumstances review. Commerce will begin conducting annual administrative reviews, if requested, to determine final assessments of CVD on importers and make changes to cash deposit rates.
The Commerce Department issued its final determinations in its countervailing duty investigations on brake drums from China (C-570-175) and Turkey (C-489-854), after finding countervailable subsidization of producers and exporters in the two countries in the preliminary determinations of its CVD investigations.
The Commerce Department made final affirmative antidumping duty determinations that imports of brake drums from China (A-570-174) and Turkey (A-489-853) are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. Suspension of liquidation and cash deposit requirements will continue for entries on or after Jan. 29, the date that the preliminary determinations were published in the Federal Register. Cash deposit rates set in these final determinations take effect June 18.
On June 16, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The FDA is exempting certain class II clinical thermometers from pre-market notification requirements, it said in a Federal Register notice. The order is effective June 18.
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).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters: