A note to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule specifies that, in order to qualify as water resistant, goods must both meet a water seepage standard and incorporate either rubber or plastics. Maine's two U.S. senators recently introduced a bill that would drop the clause on plastics and rubber that is part of the additional note to Chapter 62.
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.
Temperature screening devices that include infrared cameras are properly classified as thermometers rather than digital cameras, other optical appliances, or instruments measuring or checking quantities of heat, CBP found in a recently released headquarters ruling that instructed the port to grant an importer's protest.
Complex composite temperature screening devices are properly classified as thermometers of Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9025 and are excluded from Section 301 duties under secondary tariff number 9903.88.12 CBP, ruled in a recently released headquarters ruling. The items at issue consisted of an infrared camera, a visual imaging camera, a temperature reference source, an ethernet cable, a power adapter and a power cord.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 24-30.
Heat-treated forged steel rods imported by ME Global are properly classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule as "other bars" not further worked than forged, rather than in the importer's preferred classification as "grinding balls and similar articles for mills," the Court of International Trade ruled in a May 2 decision.
A domestic producer coalition seeks the imposition of new antidumping duties on brass rod from Brazil, India, Israel, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea, as well as new countervailing duties on brass rod from India, Israel and South Korea, it said in petitions filed with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission April 27. 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. The American Brass Rod Fair Trade Coalition is listed with Mueller Brass and Wieland Chase as petitioners, but the filing also shows that the coalition consists of Mueller Brass and Wieland Chase, the only two major producers remaining in the U.S.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of April 10-16 and 17-23.
A domestic producer filed petitions March 30 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duties on boltless steel shelving prepackaged for sale from India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD investigations. Edsal Manufacturing requested the investigations.
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.
Almost half of de minimis shipments last year were covered either by the Type 86 entry test or the Section 321 data pilot program, CBP said, but that doesn't mean that the government has a good grasp on what merchandise is entering in small packages.