A logistics consulting company cannot act as an importer of record for various wireless electronics devices because it has insufficient financial interest in the goods at issue, CBP ruled June 5. The decision came in response to a binding ruling request from Your Special Delivery Services Specialty Logistics (YSDS).
The Commerce Department's new methodology for evaluating compliance with a 2019 antidumping duty suspension agreement's requirement to eliminate 85% of dumping has forced industry players to "bet their compliance" on "speculation and estimation," exporter International Greenhouse Produce (IGP) argued in a complaint at the Court of International Trade. The exporter added that Commerce also erred by "treating certain transactions involving U.S. brokers as U.S. sales," jettisoning the definition of "broker" seemingly settled in the 1960s (International Greenhouse Produce v. U.S., CIT # 23-00093).
CBP posted the following documents ahead of the June 14 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting:
Customs modernization legislation should not just offer new tools for CBP to stop unlawful trade is the argument from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a dozen other groups involved in importing and exporting. The groups have 18 asks, laid out in a detailed five-page paper they sent to the leaders of the committees that will shape the bill.
.FDA's estimate of the work required to file an entry "does not begin to account for the work required to file an FDA import entry," the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in comments on an FDA notice that sought input on the burden of its import entry process.
CBP will expand its preliminary hold notification benefit for Trade Compliance program members of the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) to include withhold release orders (WROs) and forced labor findings, the agency announced in a May 30 letter to CTPAT participants. Preliminary hold notifications were first offered as a benefit for Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) holds back in March (see 2304260045).
The U.K. Department for Business and Trade released new guidance covering Russia-related sanctions circumvention. The guidance addresses ways companies can conduct sanctions due diligence, how companies try to "covertly" acquire goods through the procurement cycle and several red flags and "risk indicators."
CBP's Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) will next meet June 14 in Arlington, Virginia, CBP said in a notice. Comments are due in writing by June 9.
DOJ is seeking nearly $15 million in unpaid customs duties and civil penalties from five Florida importers at the Court of International Trade for alleged evasion of antidumping duties, according to a May 15 complaint (U.S. v. Lexjet, et al., CIT # 23-00105).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected customs broker license exam test-taker Byungmin Chae's petition for rehearing in his pro se case challenging the answers to a handful of questions on the April 2018 exam. Judges Pauline Newman, Sharon Prost and Kimberly Hughes rejected the petition in a per curiam order. After failing the exam initially, Chae appealed his results twice to CBP, once at the Court of International Trade and once at the Federal Circuit, leaving him just one question shy of a passing grade (see 2305100030). His rehearing bid centered on one question that was previously considered by the appellate court (Byungmin Chae v. Janet Yellen, Fed. Cir. # 22-2017).