President Joe Biden signed into law on April 8 legislation to end permanent normal trade relations status for Russian and Belarusian goods and codify an existing ban on oil from Russia, the White House said. Congress approved the bills April 7 (see 2204070036).
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. U.S. customs duties are listed in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 28 - April 3:
The unanimous three-judge opinion at the U.S. Court of International Trade remanding the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on April 1 for correcting deficiencies in the agency’s Administrative Procedure Act compliance extends the current litigation at least until mid-summer. The opinion, written by Chief Judge Mark Barnett and coming two months to the day after Feb. 1 oral argument was held (see 2202010059), gives USTR 90 days, to June 30, to respond to the remand order, and orders the plaintiffs and the government to submit a joint status report 14 days after that, including a proposed schedule on “the further disposition of this litigation.”
CBP released guidance on a new tariff rate quota on Japanese steel April 1, the date that the TRQ takes effect. Under the quarterly TRQ, agreed to in February as part of a deal on Section 232 tariffs (see 2202070064), steel subject to the tariffs entered under quota will be free of any Section 232 duty, CBP said. “Subject entries that enter after each quota fills are subject to Section 232 duties under HTS 9903.80.01,” it said.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “properly exercised its authority” under the Section 307 modification provisions of the 1974 Trade Act when it ordered the imposition of the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, the Court of International Trade ruled in an April 1 opinion. Test-case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products, plus the more than 3,600 complaints that followed, sought to vacate the tariffs on grounds that lists 3 and 4A were unlawful without USTR launching a new Section 301 investigation.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a 35% duty rate for StarKist's tuna salad pouches, agreeing with CBP's preferred Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading, in a March 30 opinion. Upholding the Court of International Trade's opinion, Judges Kimberly Moore, Timothy Dyk and Jimmie Reyna said that the tuna pouches were "not minced" and "in oil," prompting their placement under subheading 1604.14.10.
The Court of International Trade dismissed a case brought by the U.S. government seeking the collection of over $5.7 million in unpaid duties from Katana Racing on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. In a March 28 opinion, Judge Thomas Aquilino granted Katana's motion to dismiss based on an expired statute of limitations. The judge ruled that Katana was allowed to revoke an earlier statute of limitations waiver and concluded that without the waiver, any action by CBP is barred by the passage of time (United States v. Katana Racing Inc., d/b/a Wheel & Tire Distributors, CIT #19-00125).
The tariff rate quota arrangement that the U.S. offered the U.K. covers a higher volume of steel than the U.K. exported to the U.S. in 2018 and 2019, though those quotas also cover steel with EU country of origin that was melted and poured in the U.K.
The Court of International Trade ruled in a March 21 opinion that a customs spat over reimported swimsuits will head to phase two of trial. After sorting through whether a Warehousing Agreement between two related companies sufficed as a lease or similar use agreement during the first phase, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves ruled that this condition was satisfied for classification under a duty-free tariff provision for U.S. goods returned. The court will now see if the remaining conditions are satisfied in order to grant SGS Sports duty-free treatment of the reimported swimwear.
The Court of International Trade on March 18 dismissed a lawsuit brought by a domestic pipe producer seeking to compel CBP to provide it with information related to an alleged duty evasion scheme by two importers. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that while the trade court did have jurisdiction to hear the case, Wheatland Tube Company improperly submitted its requests for information to CBP, and the agency properly rejected Wheatland's request to revoke a ruling letter.