The Comfy, a "wearable, oversized item covering the front and back with a hood, sleeves, ribbed cuffs, and a marsupial pocket," is a pullover and not a blanket, the Court of International Trade held on June 16. Issuing a decision after a five-day bench trial held last year, Judge Stephen Vaden said, as a matter of fact, The Comfy doesn't protect against "extreme cold," and that, as a matter of law, the item fits under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 6110, which provides for pullovers.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Commerce Department erred in including importer GameChange Solar's off-grid solar charging modules in the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on Chinese solar cells, the importer argued in a motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade last week. GameChange argued that Commerce "unlawfully" said its goods don't fit under the orders' exclusions for consumer goods or off-grid crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels (GameChange Solar v. United States, CIT # 24-00174).
Importer Meyer Corporation U.S. and the U.S. traded supplemental briefs last week following a bench trial at the Court of International Trade on whether Meyer's cookware imports are entitled to first sale valuation (Meyer Corporation U.S. v. United States, CIT # 13-00154).
The U.S. renewed a cross-motion for judgment June 6 regarding the classification of importer HyAxiom’s hydrogen fuel cell generator components, saying the importer’s product was “a multi-functional machine” classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8479. The government’s initial motion was dismissed by Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Stanceu in August 2024 (see 2408290019) (HyAxiom v. United States, CIT # 21-00057).
The Court of International Trade on June 5 sent back the Commerce Department's new shipper review of exporter Co May under the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam after the petitioner, the Catfish Farmers of America, challenged whether Co May's single U.S. sale was bona fide. Judge Jane Restani sent the review back so Commerce can address its "profitability analysis," and specifically, so the agency can look at "antidumping duty expenses and sales between likely affiliated parties."
The Commerce Department failed to follow the "procedural prerequisites" for changing its position on remand when using adverse facts available against exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe in an antidumping duty review, the Court of International Trade held on June 5. Remanding the review for a third time, Judge Stephen Vaden said Commerce ran "afoul of the most basic of administrative law requirements" when it "falsely claimed to keep its rationale the same" for applying AFA "while quietly changing its position."
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Following a voluntary remand which saw the Commerce Department maintain a prior determination, petitioner ArcelorMittal Tubular Products said that DOJ was inventing a new, post-hoc rule that entities couldn’t be collapsed across borders (ArcelorMittal Tubular Products v. United States, CIT # 24-00039).
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated May 20-23 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):