The International Trade Commission on Jan. 1 posted the Preliminary Edition of the 2017 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (here). The new HTS implements a wide range of changes to the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System tariff nomenclature, which forms the basis for the HTS, that took effect at the beginning of 2017. This is the third part of International Trade Today's multipart summary, covering pharmaceuticals, pesticides, other chemical products, plastics and rubber, wood and wood products and paper of chapters 30 through 48.
The Department of Homeland Security’s 1,400 radiation portal monitors at U.S. ports of entry are 100 percent operational and can function beyond their estimated service life, until at least 2030, as long as they are properly maintained and spare parts remain available, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Nov. 30 (here). DHS started planning for replacing the entire fleet in fiscal 2014 and 2015, as the monitors began to reach the end of their estimated 13-year service life, but the department in 2016 changed to a selective replacement policy, entailing the use of monitors upgraded with new alarm threshold settings or buying “enhanced, commercially available” monitors to gain operational efficiencies and reduce labor requirements at some ports, GAO said. During fiscal years 2016-2018, DHS plans to replace about 120 monitors along the northern border with upgraded units, and from fiscal year 2018 through fiscal year 2020, intends to replace monitors that can’t be upgraded with new alarm thresholds at northern land border crossings with existing upgraded inventory, the report says.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Oct. 6, 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.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Oct. 5, 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.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Sept. 27, 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.
The Commerce Department published notice in the Sept. 19 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on solid fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate from Russia (A-821-811) (here). Commerce determined JSC Acron and its affiliate JSC Dorogobuzh did not undersell subject merchandise during the period of review, assigning the company a zero percent AD duty rate. Subject merchandise from Acron entered between April 1, 2014, and March 31, 2015, will be liquidated without any assessment of AD duties.
The Commerce Department published notice in the Sept. 6 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website Aug. 29, 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.
Protests may be filed to claim Generalized System of Preferences benefits, the Court of International Trade said in an Aug. 4 decision (here) that appears to contradict current CBP policy. Though it dismissed an importer’s challenge on a technicality, the court found flaws with the basis of CBP’s 2014 directive that ports no longer accept protests used to claim GSP duty-free treatment post-liquidation (see 14081320). CIT “essentially ruled that the government was wrong in taking the position that GSP claims cannot be raised in a protest,” said John Peterson of Neville Peterson, who represented the importer, Zojirushi America.