The USDA Foreign Agricultural Service will charge $350 for the 2024 tariff-rate quota (TRQ) year for each license issued to a person or firm by the USDA authorizing the importation of certain dairy articles that are subject to tariff-rate quotas set forth in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, it said in a notice released Aug. 30. The new fee is unchanged from the fee charged for 2023 TRQ year licenses (see 2208090038).
Harmonized Tariff Schedule
The Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) is a reference manual that provides duty rates for almost every item that exists. It is a system of classifying and taxing all goods imported into the United States. The HTS is based on the international Harmonized System, which is a global standard for naming and describing trade products, and consists of a hierarchical structure that assigns a specific code and rate to each type of merchandise for duty, quota, and statistical purposes. The HTS was made effective on January 1, 1989, replacing the former Tariff Schedules of the United States. It is maintained by the U.S. International Trade Commission, but the Customs and Border Protection of the Department of Homeland Security is responsible for interpreting and enforcing the HTS.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 21-27:
Vanity mirrors with speaker and a charging port or wireless charging pad are still classifiable in the tariff schedule as mirrors, CBP said in a recent ruling, denying an importer's protest for one entry but granting it for two others on the basis that the underlying entries were untimely reliquidated.
The Commerce Department issued notices in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping duty investigations on mattresses from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Burma, India, Italy, Kosovo, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, and Taiwan (A-893-002, A-487-001, A-546-001, A-533-919, A-475-845, A-803-001, A-201-859, A-565-804, A-455-807, A-856-002, A-469-826, A-583-873), and its countervailing duty investigation on mattresses from Indonesia (C-560-839). The CVD investigation covers entries for the calendar year 2022. The AD investigations cover entries July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.
An importer of forged steel fittings told CBP it was never aware its Chinese supplier was participating in a scheme to transship forged steel fittings, covered by antidumping and countervailing duty orders, from China through Sri Lanka, yet CBP concluded its Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation with the determination that the importer, YVC USA, had evaded the duties, according to a recently posted notice.
The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 17 opinion appeared to leave the door open for the government to collect additional duties in court cases filed by importers challenging denied protests. In the latest in a series of recently issued decisions finding the government can't file counterclaims in denied protest cases, Judge Gary Katzmann reclassified a government counterclaim as a defense, but said importer Second Nature Designs may be liable for more duties if that defense prevails.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is amending the Cotton Board Rules and Regulations to increase the value assigned to imported cotton for the purposes of calculating supplemental assessments on imports collected under the Cotton Research and Promotion Program, it said in a direct final rule Aug. 15. The revised value is 1.4691 cent per kilogram, an increase of .1476 cent per kilogram. The increase reflects a rise in the average price of upland cotton received by U.S. farmers during the period January through December 2022. AMS's notice also includes a table of adjusted assessments corresponding to each Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading for which they are due. The changes take effect Oct. 16, unless significant adverse comments are received by Sept. 14.
The Commerce Department recently issued an antidumping duty order on cut-to-length carbon steel plate from Russia (A-821-808), following the termination of a suspension agreement that had been in place since 2003, and in an earlier form since 1997. The order sets permanent antidumping duties, which will remain in place unless revoked by Commerce in a sunset or changed circumstances review. Commerce will now begin conducting annual administrative reviews, if requested, to determine final assessments of AD duties on importers and make changes to cash deposit rates.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 7-13:
The Commerce, State and Labor departments highlighted South Sudan’s cattle industry as a forced labor risk in an updated business advisory released this week. The Labor Department said it has a “reasonable basis to believe” cattle sourced from the country is produced by “forced or indentured child labor,” calling the sector a “significant industry in South Sudan with potential to expose U.S. business and individuals to significant reputational and legal risks.”