DOJ said it recently discovered that it made inaccurate statements in a now-concluded case involving tobacco excise taxes for cigar wrappers, telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an April 21 motion that it said samples of the goods relied on in the case were from from a specific entry when they were not, and that it has only identified the source of six of the nine samples considered by the court (New Image Global v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 19-2444).
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 Commerce Department correctly chose surrogate data in an antidumping duty administrative review on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam, DOJ said in an April 20 response brief at the Court of International Trade. DOJ asked the court to sustain the final results of the AD review, saying that the various challenges to the country selection, separate rate and use of adverse facts available should be rejected (Green Farms Seafood Joint Stock Company v. U.S., CIT # 22-00092).
CBP has opened an Enforce and Protect Act investigation on whether Muller Import and U.S. Castings evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on cast iron soil pipe from China and has imposed interim measures, it said in a notice released April 21. CBP is also investigating whether Muller evaded separate AD/CVD orders on cast iron soil pipe fittings from China.
Reconsideration of a Court of International Trade opinion on the origin of uninterruptable power supplies would amount to simple "do-over" and should be denied, DOJ said in an April 20 motion. Cyber Power failed to prove that a substantial transformation occurred for four models of its power supplies and one model of its surge voltage protector at trial, DOJ said, and reconsideration would only provide Cyber Power a chance to relitigate the case (Cyber Power Systems (USA) v. U.S., CIT # 20-00124).
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a fraud case regarding solar module imports, but left the plaintiff, Hounen Solar, room to amend the complaint (Hounen Solar v. UL, N.D. Ill. # 22-CV-3240).
A proposed label for retail packaged 12 VDC electric motors was rejected by CBP in a recent ruling letter for noncompliance with marking regulations. The proposed label, submitted by Tarping USA, is a decal placed directly onto the motor housing that displays a stylized “Imported by Tarping USA,” along with contact info and company information. Although the retail packaging is marked with “Made in China," Tarping questioned whether the decal would require an additional origin designation.
The two judicial vacancies at The Court of International Trade are unduly burdening the court, The Customs & International Trade Bar Association said in an April 20 letter to White House Counsel Stuart Delery. The letter urged President Joe Biden to quickly nominate judges for the two outstanding vacancies.
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 April 19 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: