DOJ is seeking nearly $15 million in unpaid customs duties and civil penalties from five Florida importers at the Court of International Trade for alleged evasion of antidumping duties, according to a May 15 complaint (U.S. v. Lexjet, et al., CIT # 23-00105).
Ben Perkins
Ben Perkins, Assistant Editor, is a reporter with International Trade Today and its sister publications, Trade Law Daily and Export Compliance Daily, where he covers sanctions, court rulings, and other international trade issues. He previously worked as a trade analyst for a Washington D.C. advisory firm. Ben holds a B.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire and an M.A. in International Relations from American University. Ben joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2022.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated May 15 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):
Granting a government counterclaim that unfinished steel tubes are subject to Section 301 tariffs and imposing the additional duties would be an unconstitutional action by the Court of International Trade "imposing a tax solely based on judicial power," Maple Leaf Marketing argued in a May 12 brief at the Court of International Trade (Maple Leaf Marketing v. United States, CIT # 20-03839).
May 10 CBP Bulletin Proposes to Modify Rulings on Beverage Dispenser Machines and a Transducer Array
In the May 10 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 18), CBP published proposals to revoke rulings on beverage dispenser machines and a transducer array.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Commerce Department drew impossible conclusions with its adverse facts used in the antidumping duty investigation on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from France, relying on likely sales prices in place of production costs, counsel for Dillinger France said during May 10 oral arguments at the Court of International Trade (Dillinger France v. U.S., CIT # 17-00159).
Importer WHP Associates evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on thermal paper from China, Germany and Korea by transshipment through Malaysia, according to a recently released notice from CBP. In an Enforce and Protect Act investigation, CBP found substantial evidence showed that Malaysian company Actan transshipped Korean, German,and Chinese-origin thermal paper through Malaysia that was then imported by WHP with a false country of origin claim.
Commerce should not have excluded sales of certain cylinders sold by Sahamitr Pressure Container in its home market or used the average-to-transaction (A-T) price comparison method in its calculations, the Thai exporter said in a May 8 complaint to the Court of International Trade. SMPC asked the trade court to declare that Commerce's exclusion of certain cylinders from the calculation as out of scope, as well as and its use of the A-T price comparison method, was in error and to remand the results to Commerce (Sahamitr Pressure Container v. United States, CIT # 23-00077).
The Korean Government's Port Rights Program did not provide Hyundai Steel Company with a countervailable benefit, the company said in its May 8 remand comments at the Court of International Trade (Hyundai Steel Company v. U.S., CIT # 21-00536).