Ball bearings importer Wermex filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade Oct. 29, contesting CBP's reliquidation of its entries after being erroneously covered by injunctions, when the entries should have been deemed liquidated or been liquidated in line with the final results of the relevant AD review.
Jacob Kopnick
Jacob Kopnick, Associate Editor, is a reporter for Trade Law Daily and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and International Trade Today. He joined the Warren Communications News team in early 2021 covering a wide range of topics including trade-related court cases and export issues in Europe and Asia. Jacob's background is in trade policy, having spent time with both CSIS and USTR researching international trade and its complexities. Jacob is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Public Policy.
The Commerce Department again dropped its particular market situation adjustment to the sales-below-cost test in an antidumping review, despite continuing to find that a PMS existed during the review. Dropping the adjustment in Oct. 29 remand results at the Court of International Trade, Commerce said it fulfilled the terms of its voluntary remand request in the case, explaining that the court ruled in other cases that the agency is not allowed to make such an adjustment when finding normal value (NEXTEEL Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #20-03868).
Three Court of International Trade cases filed by Janssen Ortho should be assigned to Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves and stayed, Janssen argued in an Oct. 27 brief at CIT now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued its opinion in the appeal. In April, the Federal Circuit upheld Choe-Groves' decision that the active pharmaceutical ingredient imported by Janssen in one of its HIV medications was eligible for duty-free treatment (see 2104260034). The API was darunavir ethanolate (Janseen Ortho LLC v. United States, CIT #13-00052, #14-00094, #14-00198).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 29 granted the Commerce Department's request for a voluntary remand in an antidumping duty case, so the agency can review whether it was appropriate to rely on supplemental questionnaire responses, seeing as it couldn't conduct an on-site verification. The court found that Commerce gave enough evidence of "substantial and legitimate" concerns to remand the case and further explore whether the "novel legal approach that Commerce took during the [COVID-19] pandemic" can be properly supported. The court also noted that on-site verification may now be possible given eased travel restrictions (Ellwood City Forge Company, et al. v. United States, CIT #21-00007).
CBP properly found that pencil importer Royal Brush Manufacturing evaded antidumping duties on cased pencils from China, the Court of International Trade held in an Oct. 29 opinion. Chief Judge Mark Barnett upheld CBP's determination after initially remanding the case for not having provided adequate public summaries of business confidential information. Finding that on remand, CBP cleared this hurdle and that the summaries did not violate Royal Brush's due process rights, Barnett upheld the evasion finding.
The Court of International Trade ordered an in-person oral argument to take place on Nov. 4 to settle a matter in which the Department of Justice alleged that the plaintiff failed to obtain its consent before filing for a statutory injunction against the liquidation of its entries. In a brief on the injunction motion, DOJ said that counsel for Cheng Shin Rubber -- led by Jeffrey Winton of Winton & Chapman -- completely misrepresented its position, declaring that it had the government's consent for the injunction, when it didn't (see 2110250052).
Chinese appliance manufacturer Gree Electric Appliances Inc. and two of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty to failing to tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission that millions of its dehumidifiers it sold to U.S. customers were defective and could catch fire, the Department of Justice said. Resolving the first corporate criminal enforcement actions ever brought under the Consumer Product Safety Act, Gree entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay a total penalty of $91 million and provide restitution for any uncompensated victims of fires caused by the dehumidifiers.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Importer BASF Corporation filed five complaints at the Court of International Trade on Oct. 28, challenging CBP's tariff classification of three of its vitamins and supplements. For two of the three substances, BASF is seeking classification under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 2936.
Importer TCW Trends resumed litigation in its case filed in 2012 at the Court of International Trade over the rate of duty paid on its men's knit tops and pants imports. Filing a complaint on Oct. 29, TCW said that its tops and pants were made in a Qualifying Industrial Zone in Alexandria, Egypt, making the goods eligible for preferential duty-free treatment under General Note 3(a)(v) of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The entries were liquidated under HTS subheading 6103.43.15 and 6105.20.20. Ultimately, CBP's finding that the merchandise didn't meet the duty-free eligibility requirements under the QIZ program was contrary to law, the complaint said (TCW Trends, Inc. v. United States, CIT #12-00166).