Significant Duty Increase on Insulated Steel Bottles Could Be Reversed

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently reclassified stainless steel, double‑walled beverage bottles (vacuum vessels) from HTSUS heading 7323 to heading 9617. This change will increase the duty rate on these bottles from 2 percent to 7.2 percent ahead of an HS 2022 change that would have left the 2 percent duty rate intact. The associated rulings CBP revoked would have been voided automatically by operation of law when the 2022 HTSUS takes effect on 1 January 2022. However, CBP was determined to act pre‑emptively despite having withdrawn a prior attempt to revoke the same rulings.