A retail analyst at the Center for Data Innovation, a think tank that promotes using data to form policymaking, says that while bills in Congress that would exclude China and mandate more data collection for de minimis shipments could be useful, "they do not address the root problem which is that Congress did not create the de minimis exemption so that high-volume sellers could avoid import duties and customs inspections."
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on glass wine bottles from Chile, China and Mexico (A-337-808, A-570-162, A-201-862), and its countervailing duty investigation on glass wine bottles from China (C-570-163). The CVD investigation covers entries for the calendar year 2022. The AD investigations on Chile and Mexico cover entries Oct. 1, 2022, through Sept. 30, 2023, and the AD investigation on China covers entries April 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2023.
After members of Congress were blindsided by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative backing away from digital trade advocacy, they are taking no chances in spelling out their desire that the agency push for a continued moratorium on tariffs on digital goods. The World Trade Organization has renewed that moratorium since 1998, but some member countries want to start collecting duties on the sale of streaming movies, software as a service, and more.
CBP affirmed an August 2023 Enforce and Protect Act decision that thermal paper from Germany transshipped through Mexico was covered by the scope of, and evaded, an antidumping duty order, the agency said in a de novo administrative review on Dec. 22.
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 16 sent back CBP's finding that importer Columbia Aluminum Products' door thresholds evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu said CBP, in both the final evasion decision and an administrative review of the decision, committed "multiple errors, both of fact and of law." The judge said CBP didn't have evidence on its side in making the evasion finding, nor did it properly initiate the investigation.
An importer's entries are subject to Section 232 tariffs because the vessel arrival date transmitted in ACE by the ship's captain came after the tariffs took effect on June 1, 2018, despite the importer's claim -- backed by different documentation -- that the goods actually arrived in port and had a date of entry prior to that date, CBP said in a recent ruling.
Coalition for a Prosperous America, an organization that has been arguing that de minimis should only apply to gifts and goods brought by consumers as they return from abroad (see 2312140046), wants to kill the Customs Modernization Act of 2023, the bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate that would update CBP authorities in a number of areas (see 2312110048).
The U.S. affiliate of a Dutch multinational company didn’t have the right to make entry, despite claiming to act as a sales agent and receiving a commission based on sales of the underlying merchandise, CBP said in a ruling recently posted to its Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) database.
A domestic producer coalition seeks the imposition of new antidumping duties on glass wine bottles from China, Mexico and Chile, as well as new countervailing duties on glass wine bottles from China, it said in petitions filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission Dec. 28. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CVD orders and the assessment of AD and CVD on importers.
U.S. solar cell maker Auxin Solar and solar module designer Concept Clean Energy launched a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade on Dec. 29 to contest the Commerce Department's pause of antidumping and countervailing duties on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from Southeast Asian found to be circumventing the AD/CVD orders on these products from China (Auxin Solar v. U.S., CIT # 23-00274).