The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 29 said the president doesn't have unlimited tariff authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Seven of the court's 11 total justices presiding over the case affirmed the Court of International Trade's conclusion that President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs and tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico meant to combat the flow of fentanyl exceed the president's authority under IEEPA.

The Court of International Trade, in a decision made public Aug. 29, sustained the Commerce Department's 2021 review of the countervailing duty order on new pneumatic off-the-road tires from India. Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce permissibly found that no benefit was conferred through India's Advance Authorization Scheme, which is akin to an advance drawback system. Commerce countervails the withheld import duties under this scheme unless the foreign government has an "effective, systemic process for verifying the use of such exempted inputs or has carried out an examination of actual inputs to verify their use." The judge said the record supports the agency's finding that the Indian government "conducted an examination of the actual inputs involved" in respondent Balkrishna Industries' production of subject tires to "confirm which inputs were consumed in the production of the exported product and in what quantities."

The Court of International Trade on Aug. 26 vacated and remanded the National Marine Fisheries Service's comparability findings regarding New Zealand's "West coast, North Island multi-species set-net and trawl fisheries" in a suit from conservation group Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders NZ seeking an import ban on fish from these fisheries. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that NMFS' findings are "arbitrary and capricious" and that the agency's decision memorandum is a "cursory seven-page document that is replete with conclusory statements and cites minimal record evidence." However, the judge stopped short of ordering NMFS to implement an import ban, merely leaving this possibility on the table should the agency continue to issue an unsupported conclusion.

Assemblies of stationary hydrogen fuel cell generators imported by HyAxiom are classifiable in heading 8405 as producer gas or water generators, not in heading 8479 as machines with functions not specified elsewhere or heading 8503 for parts of electric generators, said Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Stanceu in an Aug. 26 opinion. Finding in favor of the classification put forward by HyAxiom, formerly known as Doosan Fuel Cell America, Stanceu held that the HyAxiom’s “PC50 supermodule,” even though not a functioning machine as imported, has the essential character of a gas-generating machine of heading 8405.

Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif on Aug. 22 vacated the Commerce Department’s pause on antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia -- in place until June 6, 2024 -- after a finding that the countries' exporters were circumventing an antidumping duty on solar cells from China (Auxin Solar v. United States, CIT # 23-00274).

Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif ruled Aug. 21 that Canadian lumber exporter J.D. Irving’s 2022 case challenging the cash deposit rate assigned to certain entries should have been brought to a binational panel under 1581(c), not to the trade court under 1581(i). He said that the “true nature” of the exporter’s case was a challenge to a 2019 antidumping duty review’s results. His analysis, he said, was identical to the analysis offered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit when it upheld Reif’s dismissal of the exporter’s prior case (J.D. Irving v. United States, CIT # 22-00256).

In a decision made public Aug. 19, Court of International Trade Judge Claire Kelly again said the Commerce Department’s de facto specificity finding regarding the South Korean steel industry’s use of a countrywide electricity program lacked a rational explanation. Remanding the finding again, she told Commerce to apply the disproportionality analysis she defined in her first remand order (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00211).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed Aug. 19 the Commerce Department’s rejection of an exporter’s response to a separate rate questionnaire the department had already rescinded, having realized it had been issued in error. After the rejection, the exporter, Jin Tiong Electrical Materials Manufacturer, received the China-wide rate for the 2019-20 antidumping review of Chinese-origin aluminum wire and cable. In the nine-page opinion, CAFC explained that the questionnaire was rescinded because Jin Tiong failed to file a timely separate rate application (Repwire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1933).

In an opinion made public Aug. 19, Court of International Trade Judge Mark Barnett affirmed the Commerce Department's decision to reject a separate rate application submitted by solar cell exporter Yingli Energy (China). He observed that the exporter's majority shareholder was a Chinese government agency. He also upheld Commerce's rebuttable presumption that exporters in nonmarket economies are government-controlled (Yingli Energy (China) Company Limited v. United States, CIT # 24-00131).

The Court of International Trade on Aug. 13 held that seven different types of Target General Merchandise's LED lamps are properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9405, which provides for lamps and lighting fittings "having a permanently fixed light source" not specified anywhere in the tariff schedule. Judge Lisa Wang said the LED lamps don't qualify for classification under heading 8543, since goods under chapter 85 are "generally limited to electrical lamps that are components within equipment, rather than those used independently in the home." The judge then said the products, which consist of "various string light models," specifically qualify for subheading 9405.30.00, which provides for lighting sets "of a kind used for Christmas trees."