Importer Southern Motion told the Court of International Trade that its electric DC motors were made in Vietnam and thus should have received a country of origin determination of Vietnam and not China. Filing a complaint at the trade court on March 31, Southern Motion said its products were improperly assessed Section 301 duties as a result of the COO decision (Southern Motion v. United States, CIT # 25-00033).
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.
To date, no major lawsuits challenging any of the new tariff actions taken by President Donald Trump have been filed. The reasons for that include high legal hurdles to success and inconsistency in the implementation of the tariffs, trade lawyers told us.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Customs attorney Dan Ujczo, who has contacts in the White House as well as clients who are major automakers, said he thinks the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico over migration and fentanyl will continue past April 2, and will be stacked with auto tariffs and the reciprocal levies.
California-based importer Evolutions Flooring and its owners, Mengya Lin and Jin Qian, agreed to settle claims they violated the False Claims Act by "knowingly and improperly evading customs duties" on multilayered wood flooring from China, DOJ announced. DOJ said the company and its owners will pay $8.1 million to settle the case, noting that whistleblower Urban Global will receive around $1.2 million of the proceeds.
Exporters who send their goods in ocean freight testified to an interagency panel that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's proposal to require a segment of exports to travel on U.S.-flagged, and eventually, U.S.-built ships (see 2502240058) will harm their business, or even make transport so expensive that they will be priced out of sales altogether.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Customs attorney Dan Ujczo, speaking to an audience of automotive industry compliance officials hosted by the Automotive Industry Action Group, cautioned that if the listeners' companies are exporting auto parts from Mexico or Canada, they shouldn't assume that they have until May 3 before 25% tariffs are going to bite. (This is assuming the parts currently qualify for USMCA and therefore are avoiding the 25% tariffs imposed on exports from those countries under the guise of a national emergency on fentanyl smuggling and migration.)
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York: