Cisco Systems remains concerned with redesigned products imported by Arista Networks that CBP recently ruled are outside of the scope of an International Trade Commission Section 337 determination (see 1611290032). "Cisco filed an enforcement complaint with the ITC in August which notes our testing of allegedly redesigned products and why we believe 'the claim of a workaround is a thin veil to cover Arista’s ongoing infringement and convince its customers, many of whom have strongly supported protection of intellectual property rights, that they are buying a product that is non-infringing,'” a Cisco spokesman said. "The enforcement case continues with an initial ruling expected in June 2017 and the ITC is not bound by the customs decision.”

CBP will begin accepting Enforce and Protect Act allegations of antidumping or countervailing duty evasion through its e-Allegations portal (here) in December, the agency said in an overview of investigations of such allegations (here). Since an interim final rule on the processes for investigation of AD/CV duty evasion went into effect (see 1608190014), CBP has accepted allegations through a dedicated email address. Instructions for allegation submissions through the portal are also now available (here). The overview also provides some insight into the agency's basis for deciding whether an allegation "reasonably suggests" evasion occurred, as required under EAPA. "Evidence of importation, without more evidence to show the type of evasion being alleged, is not sufficient to reasonably suggest evasion," the agency said. There's been some question about the specifics of that EAPA standard after CBP declined to investigate one of the first allegations submitted under the new procedures (see 1611210053).

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Nov. 28, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.

An annual effort to stop websites from illegally selling counterfeit products again led to thousands of domain name seizures, ICE said (here). Along with law enforcement agencies across 27 countries, ICE's Homeland Security Investigations shut down about 15,000 websites that sold counterfeit merchandise online, down from the 37,479 seized domain names last year, the agency said. The operation also led to the removal of 48,000 "erroneous" e-commerce links, ICE said. The National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, a U.S. interagency collaboration led by HSI, joined with Europol and Interpol for the operation, called In-Our-Sites VII. This was the seventh year for the anti-counterfeiting website operation.

The country of origin for notebook computer hard disk drives (HDDs) for U.S. government procurement purposes is largely dependent on how the firmware is installed, CBP said in a final determination (here). CBP considered two production scenarios in the determination for Seagate Technology. "For the first scenario, we find that the country of origin of the HDDs will be the country where the firmware is largely written and installed onto the HDDs," either Singapore or South Korea, depending on the specific product, CBP said. "However, in the second scenario, the HDDs are assembled in one country, the firmware is largely written in another country, and downloaded in a third country, the United States. While counsel contends that the country of origin of the HDDs should similarly be the country where the firmware is downloaded because the HDD cannot function without the firmware being installed, that is not the correct test used to determine the country of origin of a product. The country of origin of a product is determined based on where the last substantial transformation occurs." Where the firmware is written in one country and installed in another, that is not the place where the firmware was installed. Instead, CBP said the last substantial transformation -- and therefore the country of origin -- occurs where the HDD is assembled, in a location that's redacted in the document.

CBP expanded its test of automation and prepayment of commercial truck single-crossing fees as part of an effort to eliminate cash and credit card collections, the agency said in a news release (here). Previously only at the Buffalo, Detroit and El Paso ports (see 1605020013), the program will now be available at all commercial land border crossings, it said. “Providing the trucking industry with an online payment option will ultimately decrease wait times and allow CBP officers to focus more closely on enforcement issues,” said Executive Assistant Commissioner, Office of Field Operations Todd Owen.

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Nov. 25, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.

CBP issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​

CBP is extending the comment period to Dec. 29 on an existing information collection for use in applications for CBP approval to handle goods while at a bonded facility. CBP proposes (here) to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the burden hours or information collected.

CBP is extending the comments period to Dec. 29 on an existing information collection for foreign assembler's declarations. CBP proposes (here) to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the burden hours or the information collected.