In another missed deadline case (see 2501070084, 2409100065) and 2501270069), Chinese steel rack exporter Nanjing Dongsheng Shelf Manufacturing said again March 17 that the Commerce Department shouldn’t have hit it with adverse facts available for assuming a deadline extension offered to most separate rate review respondents had also been granted to it (Nanjing Dongsheng Shelf Manufacturing Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00085).
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The Commerce Department said on remand at the Court of International Trade that importer Hardware Resources' edge-glued wood boards are wood mouldings and millwork products subject to antidumping and countervailing duty orders on that product from China (Hardware Resources v. United States, CIT # 23-00150).
CBP is not entitled to Customs Passenger Processing Fees paid by individual passengers that cancel their tickets and never actually travel to the U.S., the Court of International Trade held on March 18. Siding with Southwest Airlines, Judge Gary Katzmann said that the statute, 19 U.S.C. 58c(a), doesn't allow CBP to collect the fees where the customer doesn't travel to the U.S. and no customs inspection services are performed.
Citing a lack of subject matter jurisdiction, the U.S. sought March 14 to have dismissed exporter J.D. Irving’s case regarding some of its entries’ cash deposit rate (J.D. Irving v. U.S., CIT #22-00256).
The U.S. defended the expert testimony of its expert witness, Dr. Radhakrishnaiah Parachuru, in importer Viecura's customs suit on the classification of its pants designed to assist with incontinence. Filing a brief in opposition to Viecura's challenge to Parachuru's testimony on March 14, the government said the doctor has "specific and relevant experience with incontinence pants design" and based his testimony on reliable methodologies (Viecura v. United States, CIT # 21-00154).
A State Department notice declaring that all agency efforts to control international trade now constitute a "foreign affairs function" of the U.S. under the Administrative Procedure Act will ultimately be subject to the discretion of the courts, trade lawyers told us.
A panel of attorneys for importers, domestic petitioners and the government discussed March 13 topics that included the consequences -- or lack thereof -- Loper Bright might have on scope ruling litigation.
The U.S. government's attempt to dismiss anti-forced labor group International Rights Advocates' (IRAdvocates) suit seeking to compel CBP to respond to a withhold release order petition on cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire is "premised on a significant mischaracterization of IRAdvocates' case," the group argued. Filing a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 13, IRAdvocates said its case is meant to compel a CBP response to the petition and not to secure an affirmative determination on the WRO, as the U.S. suggests (International Rights Advocates v. Kristi Noem, Fed. Cir. # 24-2316).
President Donald Trump's memo regarding the enforcement of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 65(c) likely won't affect trade litigation given that the Court of International Trade doesn't follow the FRCP and the existence of customs bonds, attorneys told Trade Law Daily.