The Commerce Department is set to exempt more safes from its antidumping and countervailing duty orders on metal lockers from China (A-570-133/C-570-134), it said in a notice announcing the initiation and expedited preliminary results of a changed circumstances review.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Feb. 27 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 19-25:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Feb. 26, 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 CBP's ADCVD Search page.
CBP removed a recently issued Enforce and Protect Act notice from its website because it included business confidential information that was inadvertently released, a CBP spokesperson said. The notice announced the initiation of an EAPA proceeding and the imposition of interim measures on Beanomy, IYEE Nature, Kelanch, Wakodo Household Supply, Xinshidian Trading, Zevoky, Kakaivy, Weekaly, Heniddy, Ryan James Engineering, Sunwind Trading and Anlowo after CBP found a “reasonable suspicion” that the companies are evading antidumping and countervailing duties on mattresses from China (see 2402260044).
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Feb. 26 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
Boiled garlic cloves that are individually frozen and imported by Export Packers Company are subject to an antidumping duty order on fresh garlic from China, the Commerce Department said in a Feb. 21 scope ruling. Although frozen garlic has a different chemical composition than fresh garlic and is used in different recipes, it's not different enough to fall into the order’s exclusion for garlic subjected to further heat processing, the department said.
With no legislative action on a proposal to end China's eligibility for de minimis shipments, one of its authors, Sen. Sherrod Brown, is asking the Biden administration to end de minimis treatment for all e-commerce purchases, or, at least, stop de minimis treatment for goods subject to partner government agency review, products that are trade priorities, and goods subject to Section 301 and Section 232 tariffs.
Mohamed Daoud Ghacham, executive at California-based clothing wholesale company Ghacham Inc., was sentenced to 48 months in prison for undervaluing garment imports to avoid paying customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced Feb. 23. In addition, the Bell, California, resident will pay close to $6.4 million in restitution after pleading guilty in December 2022 to conspiracy to "pass false and fraudulent papers through a customhouse."
Seafood processed by North Korean guest workers in China is finding its way into U.S. supply chains, despite U.S. laws that presume all goods made by North Korean nationals are made with forced labor, according to a report by the Outlaw Ocean Project published Feb. 25 in The New Yorker. Relying on government documents, social media, local news reports and local investigators, the journalism non-profit said it found 15 seafood processing plants that used over 1,000 North Korean laborers since 2017, 10 of which shipped seafood to over 70 U.S. importers. Chinese companies identified in the report as using North Korean labor include Dalian Haiqing Food, Dandong Galicia Seafood, Dandong Omeca Food, Dandong Taifeng Foodstuff, Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods, Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff and Donggang Xinxin Foodstuff.