2020 Rulings and Revocations Summary Background
CBP published several thousand prospective rulings in 2020 on its Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) database. The agency issues its rulings from either the National Commodity Specialist Division in New York, which handles issues like classification, country of origin, marking and preferential treatment, or the Office of Regulations and Rulings at CBP headquarters in Washington, D.C., which may also decide other issues, such as valuation, drawback, exclusion order enforcement and liquidation.
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Rulings may be issued at the request of importers for a binding decision on the merchandise they plan to import. Importers may seek rulings after importation by requesting further review of denied protests, and by requesting that a port seek internal advice from CBP headquarters when the “importer has not received a prior ruling but disagrees with how the port indicates it will treat the commodity,” CBP says in its 2009 informed compliance publication on rulings. Each ruling is binding only as it relates to the importer that requested the ruling.
Once a ruling has been issued and has been in place for 60 days, CBP by law may only revoke or change the ruling through a public notice and comment process. Importers may request reconsideration of ruling letters they believe to be incorrect. CBP may also decide a previously issued ruling is incorrect and begin the process. A notice of proposed modification or revocation is published in the Customs Bulletin, allowing 30 days for public comment. Importers who have received a similar ruling from CBP are required to notify the agency during this period. After the comment period ends, CBP may publish its notice of modification or revocation of a ruling in the Customs Bulletin, effective after 60 days.
International Trade Today’s 2020 Rulings and Revocations Summary includes a selection of notable rulings covered in the pages of ITT. Many of those rulings continued to touch on the application of Section 301 tariffs from China, including the substantial transformation standard as it relates to the trade remedies, while other notable rulings outlined the application of Section 321 to unsold merchandise and the ability to store backup customs broker records on cloud servers outside the United States. Part two of the summary is a complete listing of all rulings revoked or modified by CBP in calendar year 2020.