The government correctly classified counterweights for mini-excavators as "backhoe" parts, rendering them ineligible for a Section 301 tariff exclusion, CIT Judge Jane Restani ruled in a July 21 opinion.
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 Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated July 20 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):
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The government correctly classified counterweights for mini-excavators as "backhoe" parts under tariff subheading 8431.49.9044, meaning that they were not eligible for Section 301 tariff exclusion, ruled the Court of International Trade in a July 21 opinion. Judge Jane Restani sided with the government's dictionary definitions of "backhoe" and "excavator," rather than Norca's industry usage. Even if Norca’s argument about the commercial understanding is correct, "Norca cannot overcome legislative intent," said the court. The CIT cannot accept a commercial meaning that is at odds with the tariff schedule itself, Restani said in her ruling.
In the July 19 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 28), CBP published a proposal to modify a ruling concerning a paperboard cosmetic container with sleeve.
The Commerce Department released its remand results in a case challenging the third administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain uncoated paper from Brazil. On remand, Commerce adjusted its cost of production calculations for AD respondent Suzano and further explained its decision as required by the court. Commerce reduced the weighted-average dumping margin from 32.31% to 8.63% in its remand results (Suzano S.A. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00069).
The Commerce Department got its remand results right when it concluded that hardwood plywood made using two-ply panels imported into Vietnam from China and then exported to the U.S. by the Vietnam Finewood Company were outside the scope of antidumping and countervailing duties on hardwood plywood from China, plaintiffs Far East American and Liberty Woods International said in a July 19 response (Far East American v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 22-00049).
In the July 19 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 28), CBP published proposals to modify a ruling on aluminum foil lidding stock and revoke a ruling on frozen buri fish collars.
The partial revocation of an antidumping duty order for a Turkish company should have meant that company's export volumes were to be excluded from a sunset review of the AD order, Turkish steelmaker Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari (Erdemir) argued in a July 14 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade (Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari v. U.S. International Trade Commission, CIT # 22-00351).
The Commerce Department is set to increase the antidumping duty rate it assigned to Best Mattresses and Rose Lion in an AD investigation on mattresses from Cambodia, it said in a remand redetermination dated July 17. Commerce reopened the record and issued a supplemental questionnaire to the petitioners, asking for further explanation of the process by which they retrieved Emirates Sleep’s financial statements and how the statements constituted publicly available information (Best Mattresses International v. U.S., CIT # 21-00281).