The U.S. asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to transfer the latest International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariff lawsuit to the Court of International Trade and to stay briefing on the companies' challenging the tariffs' motion for summary judgment pending resolution of the transfer motion. The government said four courts have found that CIT has exclusive jurisdiction over cases challenging the legality of tariffs imposed under IEEPA, while just one has "declined to transfer the case to the CIT or dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction" (FIREDISC, Inc. v. Donald J. Trump, W.D. Tex. # 25-01134).
The Commerce Department cannot investigate "transnational" subsidies, countervailing duty respondent Kukdo Chemical argued in a July 25 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Challenging the countervailing duty investigation on epoxy resins from South Korea, Kukdo said it's challenging "any and all substantive aspects of Commerce's" finding that the company received a countervailable subsidy via the provision of Epichlorohydrin (ECH) for less than adequate remuneration from China (Kukdo Chemical v. United States, CIT # 25-00146).
The Court of International Trade on July 28 denied importer Detroit Axle's motion for a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump's decision to end the de minimis threshold on goods from China, which was made under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif and Jane Restani said they already have granted all the relief the importer is seeking, though the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stayed that relief.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on July 28 sustained the Commerce Department's non-market economy policy in antidumping duty proceedings despite the fact that the agency hadn't codified the policy in its regulations at the time the underlying review was challenged. Judges Todd Hughes, William Bryson and Leonard Stark said the Federal Circuit has a long line of cases upholding the policy and that, even if those cases didn't exist, Commerce didn't need to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking to implement the policy.
Importer Fanuc Robotics America and the U.S. settled a customs case on the importer's robot mechanical units and robot control units. While the robot mechanical units were classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8479.5.000, dutiable at 2.5%, and the robot control units were classified under subheading 8537.10.90, dutiable at 2.7%, CBP agreed to liquidate the products under subheading 8428.90.00, free of duty; subheading 8515.21.00, free of duty; and 8515.310.00, dutiable at 1.6%. Settlement negotiations in the case proceeded over the past year specifically on two models of robot control units (see 2408260050) (Fanuc Robotics America v. U.S., CIT # 12-00052).
Elio Gonzalez, a former Commerce Department attorney, has joined Alston & Bird as counsel in the Washington D.C. office, Gonzalez announced on LinkedIn. Gonzalez worked at Commerce for the past six years, joining as an attorney in 2019 and rising to assistant chief counsel in September 2024 before departing from the agency. Prior to joining Commerce, Gonzalez served as an attorney at CBP in Long Beach, California, for nearly five years.
Judge David Ezra of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas was assigned to the latest case challenging President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, in a text-only order. Ezra was appointed to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, though he was designated by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve on the Texas court in 2013 to help manage the court's caseload (FIREDISC, Inc. v. Donald J. Trump, W.D. Tex. # 25-01134).
The Commerce Department fully supported its finding that importer Deacero's pre-stressed concrete steel wire (PC) strand circumvented the antidumping duty order on PC strand from Mexico, the U.S. argued in a July 23 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The government said Commerce fully supported its comparison of Deacero's U.S. and Mexican production facilities, finding that Deacero's PC strand production process is "minor or insignificant," and determination that Deacero's sourcing of inputs from its Mexican affiliates supported a circumvention finding (Deacero v. United States, CIT # 24-00212).
The U.S. government's "newfound" theory of jurisdiction in two importers' case against the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act is "both convoluted and wrong," the importers, Learning Resources and Hand2Mind, argued in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, D.C. Cir. # 25-5202).
Four related exporters, led by Assan Aluminyum Sanayi ve Ticaret, filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade on July 23, arguing that the Commerce Department illegally decided to limit the full duty drawback adjustment to which Assan is entitled by statute in the 2022-23 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on aluminum foil from Turkey. The result of the review was a 2.34% AD rate for Assan (Assan Aluminyum Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. v. United States, CIT # 25-00137).