The Court of International Trade scheduled an April 28 closed hearing in importer ICON EV's motions for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the imposition of interim measures against its golf cart entries, in a text-only order from Judge Jane Restani. The judge scheduled the hearing after a closed conference with the parties on April 21, writing that as ICON has made clear, "time is of the essence" (ICON EV v. United States, CIT # 26-02759).

The Commerce Department lawfully initiated scope inquiries on wooden cabinets and vanities from Malaysia and Vietnam and reasonably conducted transformation analyses in both rulings, Court of International Trade Judge Leo Gordon ruled in a pair of April 21 opinions. The result includes Chinese-origin wooden cabinets and vanities further processed in Malaysia and Vietnam in the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on the Chinese products.

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Court of International Trade Judge Joseph Laroski ruled that the Commerce Department’s interpretation of the threshold phrase “wood mouldings and millwork products” didn’t unlawfully expand the scope of the orders and lawfully included Hardware Resources’ products within the scope, according to an April 21 opinion sustaining the agency’s remand redetermination.

Importer Blue Sky The Color of Imagination's "weekly/monthly planners" are properly classified as "other" registers, account books, notebooks, diaries and the like under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 4820.2010, and not calendars under heading 4910, the Court of International Trade ruled on April 21.

The U.S. urged the Court of International Trade on April 17 to dismiss importer ICON EV's case contesting CBP's imposition of interim measures on the company's golf carts in an AD/CVD evasion case, while concurrently opposing ICON's requests for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the interim measures (ICON EV v. United States, CIT # 26-02759).

The International Trade Surety Association penned an amicus brief to the Court of International Trade on April 17, urging Judge Richard Eaton to include International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff refund payments to sureties as part of its "Phase One" payments under the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) tool. The sureties trade group said CBP's decision to limit CAPE to importers and brokers "will inevitably lead to IEEPA tariff refunds being issued to importers, instead of to the sureties who actually paid the IEEPA tariffs directly to Customs," in violation of CBP's own regulations (Euro-Notions Florida v. United States, CIT # 25-00595).

The Commerce Department on April 15 continued to find on remand at the Court of International Trade that U.S. seafood seller Luscious Seafood didn't have standing as a "wholesaler of domestic like product" to request a review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. Disagreeing with the trade court on the specific standard to be used when reviewing standing of U.S. companies to request review, Commerce said that even under the more stringent standard outlined by Judge Timothy Stanceu, Luscious didn't have standing to request the review (Luscious Seafood v. United States, CIT # 24-00069) (Catfish Farmers of America v. United States, CIT # 24-00082).

Court of International Trade Judge Jane Restani on April 17 remanded the Commerce Department's finding that the South Korean government's provision of additional emissions credits is specific as an "export subsidy," ordering the agency to review the alleged subsidy for de facto specificity in a case on the 2021 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea.

There are multiple “risk factors” that increase the likelihood that a company will face a class action lawsuit related to tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Katie Burghardt Kramer, a partner at DTO Law, said during an April 16 event hosted by the Customs and International Trade Bar Association.