The Commerce Department properly found that Australian steel maker BlueScope Steel did not reimburse its affiliated U.S. importer, BlueScope Steel Americas, for antidumping duties, the U.S. argued in a Jan. 27 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government said that claims from AD petitioner U.S. Steel "are based entirely on a misreading of the supply agreement," since the agreement actually sets the price the importer will charge Steelscape, the affiliated final customer, and is silent as to the transfer price between the exporter and importer (U.S. Steel Corp. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2078).
Despite concerns from customs brokers that new provisions in CBP’s recent Part 111 final rule could hurt their client relationships, a new reporting requirement for termination of the broker-client relationship should rarely come up, and another provision on record-keeping by brokers when they discover client compliance issues carries with it some silver linings, customs experts said on a Jan. 25 webinar.
RediBag seeks an order compelling AT&T to produce emails relevant to a lawsuit it’s pursuing against a former sales broker for misappropriating RediBag’s trade secrets, said its motion Friday (docket 1:23-mc-00028) in U.S. District Court for Delaware. RediBag, which supplies plastic and paper bags to supermarkets, learned through discovery that the former broker, John Maierhoffer, communicated with RediBag’s competitors through his AT&T-owned BellSouth email address, said the motion. RediBag subpoenaed AT&T Dec. 9 for copies of Maierhoffer’s emails, including those he admitted to deleting, plus the metadata of those emails, it said: “RediBag wants to see the content of the emails and to determine when they were deleted (including whether they were deleted when Maierhoffer knew or should have known that litigation was underway or imminent).” RediBag’s motion alleges AT&T is dragging its feet on the subpoena, citing the referral of one AT&T representative to Yahoo as the company that’s in possession of the missing emails. An internet search reveals that Yahoo “is under contract with AT&T to provide certain services to AT&T customers with various types of email addresses,” including BellSouth email addresses, it said. “In an abundance of caution, RediBag also has subpoenaed Yahoo, which has not yet responded,” it said. “In other words, publicly available evidence suggests that AT&T has the practical ability to obtain the requested documents.” Several websites visited by RediBag attorneys as recently as Friday show “a relationship between Yahoo and AT&T that almost certainly provides AT&T with the practical ability to obtain the emails of users” with BellSouth email addresses, including Maierhoffer’s, it said. AT&T didn’t comment Monday.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Compliance with a new country of origin (COO) reporting requirement in the Automated Export System would be difficult for smaller and occasional exporters, many of which would likely have to develop new processes to report that information, the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America told the Census Bureau. The NCBFAA urged Census to research whether it can collect that COO information from other sources before it decides to move forward with the proposal.
Cynthia Whittenburg was named executive vice president of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America’s National Education Institute, the NCBFAA said in an emailed news release Jan. 23. Whittenburg, formerly of CBP before joining the NCBFAA institute as associate director, takes over as head of the institute from Kiko Zuniga, who led it for 12 years, the NCBFAA said.
LAREDO, Texas -- An upcoming CBP final rule requiring continuing education for customs brokers could be issued as soon as the first half of 2023, with the continuing education requirements taking effect in 2024 for reporting on the 2027 broker triennial report, said Kiko Zuniga, director of the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America’s National Education Institute.
A recent change to how customs brokers get duty-free certificates for entries under government military contracts will not affect submission of the certificates to CBP, the agency said in a CSMS message. The decommissioning of the Defense Contract Management Agency’s duty-free entry eTool system “has no impact on the submission of duty-free certificates for CBP purposes,” CBP said. Brokers will not have access to the new Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE) that replaces eTool.
The Agricultural Marketing Service on Jan. 18 released a final rule requiring submission in ACE of National Organic Program organic certificates for all organic products entering the U.S. as part of the entry process. The agency’s sprawling final rule also sets requirements for organic certifiers, recognition of foreign organic certifications, labeling requirements and the calculation of organic content of multi-ingredient products, among other things.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control Dec. 30 fined a multinational Danish-based refrigeration manufacturer more than $4.3 million for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Syria and Sudan. Danfoss, which also sells air conditioners and other cooling and heating products, illegally directed customers in all three countries to make payments through a U.S. financial institution, OFAC said in an enforcement notice. The company also made illegal payments to entities in Iran and Syria.