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October 2026, question 67

Valuation, Appraisement and Duty Assessment · Antidumping and countervailing duties

CBP received an allegation on July 1, 2026, from a member of the public against Star Merchant (Star) for the evasion of antidumping duties (AD) on steel products that were made on August 30, 2025, and began an investigation consistent with Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) orders. CBP has imposed interim measures to protect revenue and issued a Request for Information (RFI) to Star, demanding a description of the covered merchandise as well as operations data, including detailed production records, supply chain maps, and pricing agreements. Star is a client of Gotham Brokers (Gotham), who is authorized to conduct customs business on behalf of Star under a power of attorney with unlimited authority. Star notifies Gotham that it considers all of the information CBP requested to be highly confidential trade secrets and instructs Gotham to redact all documents provided in response to the RFI. Of the four choices below, what is the best advice for Gotham to give Star to prepare a response to the RFI in compliance with CBP regulations?

  1. Gotham advises Star to clearly mark the requested documents with a cover page, stating that the submission contains confidential information, and to enclose the covered merchandise descriptions and operations data within brackets and replace the bracketed information with a sufficiently detailed summary that maintains the confidentiality of Star’s trade secrets.
  2. Gotham advises Star to request that CBP treat its entire submission in response to the RFI as business confidential. Gotham also provides Star with instructions to prepare both a confidential and a public version of the requested documents.
  3. Gotham advises Star that descriptions of covered merchandise may not be redacted or otherwise treated as “business confidential,” but Star may request that CBP treat its operations data as business confidential. Gotham also provides Star with instructions to prepare business confidential and public versions of the requested documents.
  4. Gotham advises Star that no response to the RFI is required because the allegation was not timely made.
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CBP's answer: C. C: Gotham advises Star that descriptions of covered merchandise may not be redacted or otherwise treated as “business confidential,” but Star may request that CBP treat its operations data as business confidential. Gotham also provides Star with instructions to prepare business confidential and public versions of the requested documents.

A party may ask CBP to treat parts of an EAPA submission as business confidential, by bracketing the information, stating this on the first page, and filing a public version with a summary (165.4(a)). But 165.4(c) says the description of covered merchandise will be treated as public. So Gotham should advise that the merchandise description cannot be treated as confidential while operations data can, with confidential and public versions prepared, which is C. A would bracket the merchandise description, B would claim the whole submission as confidential, and D is wrong because the allegation covered entries within one year (165.2).

Description of covered merchandise; and 19 CFR 165.4(c)(4)
An interested party filing a submission containing claimed business confidential information must also file a public version of the submission. 19 CFR 165.4(a)(2)

Search for: Information that will not be protected as confidential

CBP's key cites: 19 CFR 165.2; 19 CFR 165.4; 19 CFR 165.6; 19 CFR 165.26

Question and key from CBP's October 2026 exam and answer key. The walk-through is ours; quotes are from the pinned editions in the reference viewer (HTSUS 2026 Basic, 19 CFR 2025 edition).