International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Importer Trijicon's tritium-powered gun sights are "lamps" and not "apparatus," slotting them under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9405, the Court of International Trade ruled on Feb. 16. Judge Mark Barnett said the gun sights do not meet definition of "apparatus" put forward by either Trijicon or the government, who respectively defined the term as a set of materials or equipment and a complex device. The court instead found that the products "are readily classified as lamps," which are defined as "any of various devices for producing light."
CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) reappointed 14 members for the 17th term of the group, the agency said. Additional 17th term appointments will be made and announced at a later date, CBP said.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the Feb. 16 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department is beginning new antidumping duty investigations on paper plates from China, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as new countervailing duty investigations on paper plates from China and Vietnam, it said in a fact sheet Feb. 15. The underlying petition was filed in January (see 2401260030). The International Trade Commission is scheduled to make its preliminary injury determinations by March 11. These AD/CVD investigations will continue only if the ITC finds injury. International Trade Today will provide more details upon publication of the initiation notices in the Federal Register.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the following voluntary recalls Feb. 15:
On Feb. 15, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation announced Feb. 15 that Special Import Quota #18 for upland cotton will be established Feb. 22, allowing importation of 6,540,756 kilograms (30,041 bales) of upland cotton, the same as the previous quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than May 21, 2024, and entered into the U.S. by Aug. 19, 2024. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the October through December 2023 period, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has asked Mexico whether RV Fresh Foods in Uruapan is denying its workers the right to collective bargain. The firm, which makes guacamole, is the first food manufacturer targeted through the USMCA Rapid Response Labor Mechanism. COCENA, a Mexican union confederation, alleges that the company restricted the union's access to the facility and intervened in union delegate elections.
The U.S. will tell CBP to resume liquidation of aluminum parts coming from Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico, a Chinese-headquartered firm that does die casting and machining of aluminum parts in San Luis Potosí. According to Asiaway's website, the factory just opened in June 2023.