The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated April 26 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
Country of origin cases
Steel importers led by PrimeSource Building Products petitioned for an en banc rehearing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision to uphold President Donald Trump's expansion of the Section 232 national security tariffs on steel and aluminum "derivative" products. The companies said that if the decision stands, the president "will enjoy unbounded legislative power to regulate foreign trade -- to take any action, at any time, targeting any imported product," as long as the commerce secretary makes a threat determination on the targeted product or any material used to make that product (PrimeSource Building Products v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #21-2066).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's use of total facts otherwise available with an adverse inference on remand in an antidumping duty case concerning wooden cabinets and vanities from China, according to an April 24 opinion. Judge Miller Baker upheld Commerce's use of AFA and its selection of the 262.18% China-wide rate for Dalian Meisen.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld CBP's decision not to grant credit to customs broker license exam test taker Byungmin Chae of Elkhorn, Nebraska, for two questions on the April 2018 exam. Judges Pauline Newman, Sharon Prost and Todd Hughes granted Chae credit for one of three questions he challenged, but that was insufficient to bring him up to the 75% threshold needed to pass the test.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's April 28 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports are also expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
Rana Tanveer, a Beckley, West Virginia, resident, pleaded guilty April 20 to committing an export fraud violation by submitting false export valuations for certain items shipped to Pakistan, DOJ announced. Tanveer faces a maximum five-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Reconsideration of a Court of International Trade opinion on the origin of uninterruptable power supplies would amount to simple "do-over" and should be denied, DOJ said in an April 20 motion. Cyber Power failed to prove that a substantial transformation occurred for four models of its power supplies and one model of its surge voltage protector at trial, DOJ said, and reconsideration would only provide Cyber Power a chance to relitigate the case (Cyber Power Systems (USA) v. U.S., CIT # 20-00124).
A proposed label for retail packaged 12 VDC electric motors was rejected by CBP in a recent ruling letter for noncompliance with marking regulations. The proposed label, submitted by Tarping USA, is a decal placed directly onto the motor housing that displays a stylized “Imported by Tarping USA,” along with contact info and company information. Although the retail packaging is marked with “Made in China," Tarping questioned whether the decal would require an additional origin designation.