USITC Releases Report Related to Extension of Trade Authorities Procedures - US International Trade Commission
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has submitted to Congress a statutorily required report related to the President’s request to Congress for an extension of his trade authorities procedures.
The President submitted a request to Congress on March 20, 2018, for an extension of trade authorities procedures, commonly known as trade promotion authority. At the same time, the USTR notified the USITC of the President’s request. The Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (Bipartisan Trade Act) requires the USITC, having been notified of the President’s request, to provide a report to Congress that contains a review and analysis of the economic impact on the United States of all trade agreements implemented between the date of the enactment of the Bipartisan Trade Act and the date of the President’s notification to Congress.
The USITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, found that no trade agreements were implemented under the Bipartisan Trade Act between the date of its enactment and March 20, 2018. While at least one trade agreement was negotiated during this period, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, it was not implemented during this period.
Trade Authorities Extension: Economic Impact of Trade Agreements Implemented under the Bipartisan Trade Act of 2015 (Investigation No. 332-566, USITC publication 4792, June 2018) is available on the USITC's Internet site at https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4792.pdf.
UPDATE: Submitting Imports of Products Excluded from Duties on Imports of Steel or Aluminum - U.S. Customs & Border Protection
BACKGROUND:
On March 19, 2018, the Department of Commerce (DOC) published in the Federal Register (FR) the process for parties to submit requests for exclusions from Presidential Proclamations 9704 and 9705 on Adjusting Imports of Steel and Aluminum into the United States under section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. See 83 FR 12106.
The functionality described below for the Importer Additional Declaration Field will be available in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) as of June 1, 2018. For any exclusions approved by DOC prior to June 1, 2018, importers may submit a Post Summary Correction (PSC) on or after June 1, 2018 to request a refund on applicable previous imports of excluded products, as described in the additional information section below.
UPDATE:
Upon receipt of the approved product exclusion from the DOC, for the importer of record listed in the approved exclusion, please provide that company’s name, address and importer of record number, and the associated product exclusion number, to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Traderemedy@cbp.dhs.gov.
You must provide this information to CBP before the importer of record submits the exclusion number with entries to CBP.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILING PRODUCT EXCLUSION NUMBERS:
Instructions on submitting entries to CBP of steel and aluminum products granted exclusions by DOC from the Presidential Proclamations are as follows:
Importers and filers importing products granted an exclusion should submit the product exclusion number based on the last six digits of the product exclusion docket number at Regulations.gov. The product exclusion number should be submitted in the Importer Additional Declaration Field (54 record) of the entry summary data, based on the following format:
For excluded steel mill articles = STLXXXXXX
For excluded aluminum articles = ALUXXXXXX
XXXXXX represent the last six digits of the Regulations.gov docket number; do not include spaces or special characters, such as hyphens.
Example: If a steel exclusion is granted under product exclusion docket number BIS-2018-0009-9002, the importer/filer should submit the exclusion number STL099002 (i.e. STL plus the last six digits of the docket number).
Please refer to the Importer’s Additional Declaration Detail (Input 54-Record) of the CBP and Trade Automated Interfaces Requirements (CATAIR) Manual for further guidance. The CATAIR document can be found at https://www.cbp.gov/document/guidance/ace-abi-catair-entry-summary-createupdate.
Only products from importer(s) designated in the product exclusion approved by the DOC are eligible for the exclusion from the Section 232 measures.
Steel importers are reminded to submit mill certificates with their import data as required by 19 CFR 141.89.
Do not submit the corresponding Chapter 99 HTS number for the Section 232 duties when the product exclusion number is submitted.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Exclusions granted by DOC are retroactive on imports to the date the request for exclusion was posted for public comment at Regulations.gov. To request an administrative refund for previous imports of excluded products granted by DOC, importers may file a PSC and provide the product exclusion number in the Importer Additional Declaration Field.
Once products are excluded from the Section 232 measures, importers may claim Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) or African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) duty preferences on GSP and AGOA-eligible goods. If importers did not receive GSP or AGOA duty preferences on previous imports, and those imports are now covered by a retroactive exclusion, importers may request a refund of the duties subject to GSP or AGOA preferences through a PSC.
If the entry has already liquidated, importers may protest the liquidation.
In the News:
#8203;Pursuant to the Presidential Proclamation for articles subject to section 232 measures, imports of steel mill products from Argentina, Brazil and South Korea; and imports of aluminum products from Argentina; entered on or after 12:01 am eastern daylight time on June 1, 2018, are subject to absolute quota.
Steel and aluminum products subject to section 232 absolute quota should be filed with appropriate classification and corresponding absolute quota entry type.
For additional information on absolute quota on steel and aluminum products, please refer to cbp.gov quota page: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/quota
Additional information on the May 31, 2018 deployment of Quota Status Messages in ACE can be found in the ACE Quota Status Message Information Notice on CBP.gov/ACE or at the link below:
https://www.cbp.gov/trade/automated/absolute-quota-information-notice
Commissioner says E-commerce Challenges Regulators and Shippers Alike - U.S. Customs & Border Protection
Electronic commerce is a booming business, but it’s putting a strain on U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s land, sea and air ports of entry, Commissioner Kevin McAleenan told guests at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 6th Annual Global Supply Chain Summit, Tuesday, in Washington, D.C.
The numbers are staggering. Office of Trade records show that e-commerce resulted in nearly a 50 percent increase in express consignment billings in five years and a 300 percent increase in international mail. In fiscal 2013, the agency processed 150 million international mail shipments. By fiscal 2017, that number was over 500 million shipments.
The explosive growth in e-commerce, particularly small parcels, is also outpacing the ability of retailers and carriers to handle the volume. Almost 80 percent of Americans shop online, and the global e-commerce market is now $2.29 trillion in sales, the Commissioner pointed out, citing statistics from the Pew Research Center and the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development.
E-commerce shipments pose the same health, safety and economic security risks as container shipments, but with a higher volume. Criminals see drugs and other contraband shipped in small packages as less likely to be discovered and counterfeiters can now ship directly to consumers and retailers. “Just consider the damage that counterfeit brake pads or air bags or cosmetics or pharmaceuticals can do,” McAleenan said.
CBP is taking action to address the challenges of e-commerce that protects consumers while supporting legitimate business. The agency is reaching out to foreign and domestic stakeholders to share advance electronic data and create incentives for carriers to comply with U.S. laws and regulations. “Our risk management practices can no longer focus on traditional shipping methods,” he said, especially for goods arriving from unknown or less experienced importers.
CBP is also bringing federal agencies together to share critical information. One example, McAleenan said, is the Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center, a law enforcement partnership focused on targeting shipments that pose a risk to safety and investigating environmental crimes, illicit wildlife shipments and cultural property trafficking.
The center’s joint targeting and enforcement efforts resulted in 243 seizures of unsafe imported products in fiscal 2017 worth more than $3.8 million, figures CBP provided at a March Senate Finance Committee hearing. CBP is also establishing relationships with state and local government in supply chain awareness.
CBP will use analytics and data mining to recognize trends, threats and anomalies to identify high-risk shipments. “We recognize technology is key for this effort,” McAleenan said.
CBP is also continuing its national media campaign to highlight the dangers of illicit goods and doing business with illegitimate sellers or buying counterfeit merchandise.
“The stakes have never been higher as we balance border security and trade facilitation in an increasingly competitive and complex global environment,” the Commissioner said. “The global supply chain is changing and CBP is changing with it.”
Japanese Auto Parts Company Pleads Guilty to Antitrust Conspiracy Involving Steel Tubes - US Department of Justice
Company Agrees to Pay $12 Million Criminal Fine
WASHINGTON – Maruyasu Industries Co. Ltd., an automotive parts manufacturer headquartered in the Aichi Prefecture in Japan, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $12 million criminal fine for its role in a criminal conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers for automotive steel tubes incorporated into vehicles sold in the United States and elsewhere, the Department of Justice announced today.
Automotive steel tubes are used in fuel distribution, braking and other automotive systems and are sometimes divided into two categories – chassis tubes and engine parts. Chassis tubes, such as brake and fuel tubes, tend to be located in the body of a vehicle while engine parts, such as fuel injection rails, oil level tubes and oil strainer tubes, are associated with the function of a vehicle’s engine.
Maruyasu pleaded guilty to a charge contained in an Indictment returned by a grand jury on June 15, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. According to the plea agreement, Maruyasu participated in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids for automotive steel tubes sold to automobile manufacturers in Japan and incorporated into vehicles sold in the United States, in violation of the Sherman Act.
The Indictment also charged Maruyasu’s wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary, Curtis-Maruyasu America Inc., and sales executives Tadao Hirade, Kazunori Kobayashi, Satoru Murai, and Yoshihiro Shigematsu. Concurrent with the Court’s imposition of the sentence against Maruyasu, the United States moved to dismiss the Indictment as to Curtis-Maruyasu America Inc., Hirade, Kobayashi, and Shigematsu. The sales executives will be required to cooperate with the government in any future prosecutions related to the charged conspiracy.
“The Antitrust Division’s prosecution of widespread collusion in the auto parts industry has yielded more than $2.9 billion in fines and convictions of 46 corporations and 32 executives,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to protect American consumers and the free markets by aggressively prosecuting antitrust crimes.”
“Bid rigging, price fixing and other schemes hurt consumers and undermine our economic system,” said Special Agent in Charge Amy S. Hess of the FBI’s Louisville Field Office. “We will continue our work with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division to uncover schemes aimed at creating an unfair competitive advantage.”
This plea represents another victory for U.S. consumers and we greatly appreciate the opportunity to partner with the FBI and Department of Justice Antitrust Division in this endeavor,” said Special Agent in Charge Duane Townsend of the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General.
Today’s plea is the result of an investigation conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Chicago Office, the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General’s Denver Field Office, and the FBI’s Louisville Field Office, Covington Resident Agency, with assistance from the FBI headquarters’ International Corruption Unit and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Anyone with information on market allocation, price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct should contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258, visit www.justice.gov/atr/contact/newcase.html or call the FBI’s Louisville Field Office at 502-263-6000.