The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 29 - April 4:
Court of International Trade
The United States Court of International Trade is a federal court which has national jurisdiction over civil actions regarding the customs and international trade laws of the United States. The Court was established under Article III of the Constitution by the Customs Courts Act of 1980. The Court consists of nine judges appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is located in New York City. The Court has jurisdiction throughout the United States and has exclusive jurisdictional authority to decide civil action pertaining to international trade against the United States or entities representing the United States.
Judge Mark Barnett has taken over as the chief judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade, following Judge Timothy Stanceu's assumption of senior status April 5 (see 2103160061), according to the court's website. Barnett joined the court in 2013 as a President Barack Obama appointee. He previously practiced in the international trade group at Steptoe & Johnson and served in the Office of Chief Counsel for Import Administration at the Commerce Department. He was the longest tenured judge at CIT at the time of Stanceu's move to senior status.
President Donald Trump's addition of Section 232 tariffs on finished products of steel and aluminum was “invalid,” Court of International Trade Judges Timothy Stanceu and Jennifer Choe-Groves said in an April 5 ruling. The ruling is the result of a challenge from PrimeSource Building Products, which said the presidential proclamation that imposed the tariffs on steel and aluminum “derivatives” was improper because it was issued after the statutory deadline.
The Court of International Trade found that President Donald Trump violated procedural time limits when expanding Section 232 tariffs to steel and aluminum “derivatives,” in an April 5 decision granting refunds to steel nail importer PrimeSource Building Products. Judges Timothy Stanceu and Jennifer Choe-Groves, as part of a three-judge panel, struck down the tariff expansion, ruling that the president exceeded his authority to impose tariffs when he elected to extend them to derivative products. Judge M. Miller Baker, the remaining judge on the panel, dissented from the opinion.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 22-28:
CBP incorrectly reversed its own Enforce and Protect Act determination that an importer evaded antidumping duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from India, a U.S. shrimp industry group said in a complaint filed at the Court of International Trade March 23. The Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee (AHSTEC), made up of shrimp producers and wholesalers, said CBP should have stuck with its original finding that Minh Phu transshipped Indian shrimp through Vietnam, in part because the exporter did not provide enough information on its supply chain.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 15-21:
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judge Jimmie Reyna asked probing questions on the ability of the president to implement or alter Section 232 national security tariffs with few impediments, during oral argument on March 18. The judge questioned Department of Justice counsel Tara Hogan about the government's defense of tariff alterations President Donald Trump made in 2018 and said that the way the government interpreted the law on tariff modifications would not be applicable in his line of business.
Lawyers for the roughly 3,700 Section 301 complaints inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade reached consensus on picking the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products action as the sole sample case in the massive litigation and on seating 15 among their ranks for the plaintiffs’ steering committee, HMTX-Jasco counsel Akin Gump said in the lawyers’ “coordinated proposal” March 19. Though plaintiffs “cannot guarantee 100% agreement on every issue on behalf of every single counsel,” they are “not aware of any objection to this proposal after repeated consultations and opportunities for review,” it said.
Court of International Trade Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu will assume senior status at the court April 5, according to the U.S. Courts website. A 2003 President George W. Bush appointee, Stanceu has held numerous government positions, including as deputy director of the Treasury Department's Office of Trade and Tariff Affairs. Judge Mark Barnett, the longest-serving active judge on the court, is expected by some to take over as chief judge (see 2102050008).