CBP issued a notice of final determination of the country of origin of OmniSeal DBB, a "plug-type valve often used in fuel storage and disbursing systems." (parties of interest can seek judicial review by July 29):
CBP named Heather Sykes chief of the Broker Compliance Branch at the agency, a CBP spokeswoman said. Anita Harris, the previous Broker Compliance Branch chief, moved to the Textiles and Apparel division, the spokeswoman said.
CBP issued its June 26 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 27), which contains notices of the following ruling actions:
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website June 24, 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 addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)
CBP issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of June 24. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, and tobacco; and certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, OFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, OFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying textile articles and/or other articles; the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.
The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC) and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) signed a letter of intent on June 20 to establish a trade transparency unit in Manila that will exchange information and promote detection of trade-based money laundering and commercial fraud violations, according to an ICE news release (here). With this partnership, HSI will give the Philippine BOC access to the Data Analysis and Research for Trade Transparency System, a computer system that contains domestic and foreign trade data and makes trade transactions transparent by allowing users to see both ends of the transactions, ICE said.
Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated June 24 with 90 rulings, bringing the total number of searchable rulings to 177,917. The most recent ruling is dated 06/24/2013.
Cast iron and aluminum lampposts and lamppost bases, imported by a municipality and bearing the name of a U.S. locality, do not necessarily have to be conspicuously and indelibly marked with the country of origin, as long as the municipality is aware of the source, said CBP in a May 31 ruling. Domestic lamppost manufacturer Spring City Electrical Manufacturing Company requested the ruling, HQ H215535, arguing that when a product is imported by a municipality, the ultimate purchaser is the taxpaying public. Therefore, country of origin marking for lampposts imported by municipalities must be visible to the public, it said. CBP disagreed, pointing to past rulings, and also denied Spring City’s request to revoke one of those past rulings for lack of standing.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website June 21, 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 addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)