The Transportation Department doesn't have "vested authority" to determine whether to admit entries of goods based on whether they comport with federal safety standards, the Court of International Trade held on Oct. 30. Judge Lisa Wang said that, as a result, CBP has the relevant admissibility authority and the trade court can hear the case.

Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week, in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

The Commerce Department continued to include importer Elysium Tiles' composite tile within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on ceramic tile from China. Submitting remand results to the Court of International Trade on Oct. 29, Commerce said that the imports' marble top layer doesn't remove the tile from the scope of the orders, which covers "ceramic tile with decorative features" (Elysium Tiles v. United States, CIT # 23-00041).

In oral argument, a Chinese aluminum foil exporter and the government discussed Commerce’s procedure for selecting world benchmark prices for an input and for land purchases (Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00133).

The Commerce Department has the authority to countervail currency undervaluation, the Court of International Trade held in a decision made public Oct. 25. Judge Timothy Reif found that nothing in the text of the countervailing duty statute, the statute's legislative history or legislative or administrative developments prohibit Commerce from imposing CVD due to a country's undervalued currency.

The International Trade Commission legally found on remand that Russian seamless pipe imports are non-negligible, as part of its injury determination on the products, the Court of International Trade held on Oct. 25. Judge M. Miller Baker said that CBP made "reasonable estimates" of the amount of in-scope merchandise imported from other nations, as this would affect the negligibility calculation for Russian seamless pipe.

Exporter The Ancientree Co. failed to timely raise a ministerial error allegation regarding an adjustment to its U.S. price in an antidumping duty review, the Court of International Trade held on Oct. 24. Judge Mark Barnett said that the Commerce Department's regulations required Ancientree to identify any ministerial errors present in the preliminary results and make all relevant arguments about them in its administrative case brief -- something the company failed to do.

A syringe importer said Oct. 23 that, without an injunction on a new 100% tariff on needles from China, it must either “discontinue 95% of business or suffer non-recoupable damages.” In response, the U.S. said that it had enough money to absorb the duties -- for example, by cutting its CEO's pay (Retractable Technologies v. U.S., CIT # 24-00185).

If a reelected President Donald Trump uses the existing Section 301 tariffs program to hike tariffs on all Chinese goods by at least 60%, that's likely to survive a court challenge, said two law professors who spoke during a Washington International Trade Association webinar on the executive branch's ability to make deals and impose trade restrictions without congressional say-so.

The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Oct. 23 sustained the Commerce Department's rejection of eight Section 232 steel tariff exclusion requests from importer Seneca Foods Corp. on its tin mill product entries. Judge Gary Katzmann said the rejections were backed by substantial evidence and in line with agency practice.