CIT Denies US Request for Stay of Proceedings in de Minimis Challenge
The Court of International Trade denied the U.S. motion to stay proceedings in a case challenging the elimination of the de minimis threshold for Chinese products. Detroit Axle, the importer challenging the government, then filed an emergency motion requesting the dates ordered by CIT be moved earlier to "preserve Detroit Axle’s ability to obtain meaningful relief" (Axle of Dearborn, d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Dep't of Commerce, CIT # 25-00091).
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Detroit Axle filed suit to challenge the order's elimination of de minimis for Chinese products as a violation of the de minimis statute (see 2505220063). The importer argued that if President Trump wanted to ax the de minimis threshold, he had to do it through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
The government then argued that the case should be stayed until the resolution of the separate International Emergency Economic Powers Act case before U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where the lower court had ruled that the Trump administration's tariff executive orders -- which also ended de minimis -- should be vacated (see 2506020013).
In a text-only order on June 5, CIT denied the government's motion to stay without prejudice and set a response date of June 20 for the government and July 7 for Detroit Axle.
The following day, Detroit Axle filed an emergency motion for reconsideration of the briefing schedule, arguing that its situation was so dire that "it will likely be forced to shutter most or all of its business and lay off hundreds of employees if it does not receive relief by the end of June." The company requested alternate dates of June 16 and June 20 for the respective responses, saying that this "schedule will not cause the government any prejudice and would preserve Detroit Axle’s ability to obtain meaningful relief."