The Court of International Trade on Jan. 30 rejected importer Spirit Aerosystems' claim that the "preceding indented text" to any 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading should be read as part of the article description for purposes of claiming a substituted unused merchandise drawback. Spirit's had argued its 10-digit subheading begin with the superior text "For use in civil aircraft" as opposed to "other," avoiding a prohibition on unused merchandise drawback for HTS subheadings that begin with the word "other." But Judge Claire Kelly said the "plain meaning" of the drawback statute refers to the words adjacent to the 10-digit number and not the superior indented text, and that Congress meant to exclude article descriptions with the word "other" to eliminate the need for CBP to find on a case-by-case basis whether goods are sufficiently similar to be eligible for drawback.
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 29 granted in part and denied in part the U.S. bid to sanction a wristwatch exporter for late supplemental discovery materials. Judge Jane Restani said the exporter hadn't made a “sufficiently diligent” search for some of the materials, though she also said she was “mystified” by both parties’ actions involving others.
The following trade-related lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
A steelmaker petitioner opposed the results of the Commerce Department’s second remand in a case challenging the results of a 2018 administrative review on South Korean carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate, saying that Commerce didn’t explain why the petitioner hadn’t provided enough evidence to prompt the agency to examine a particular subsidy (Nucor v. U.S., CIT # 21-00182).
Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif heard oral argument Jan. 18 in a case concerning the 2019 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on mattresses from Vietnam. Parties discussed the Commerce Department’s reliance on incomplete records and public access to a surrogate’s financial information (Ashley Furniture Industries v. U.S., CIT # 21-00283).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Jan. 26 granted the U.S. request for a voluntary remand in an Enforce and Protect Act case led by American Pacific Plywood to address the Federal Circuit's holding in Royal Brush Manufacturing v. U.S. In that decision, the appellate court said CBP violated an EAPA respondent's due process rights by not providing it with access to confidential business information in the investigation (American Pacific Plywood v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-2321).
An exporter Jan. 26 asked the Court of International Trade to review the Commerce Department’s rejection of a scope ruling application that the agency said was duplicative (Deer Park Glycine, LLC v. U.S., CIT # 24-00016).
The Court of International Trade granted in part and denied in part the government’s motion to bar a wristwatch exporter from using certain supplemental discovery materials that were filed late -- a set of photographs and samples of crystals used in some of the watches -- in any further proceedings. The court barred Ildico from using the photographs, saying the exporter had not made a “sufficiently diligent” search for them earlier. Judge Jane Restani allowed continued use of the sample crystals for now but said she was “mystified” by the actions of both parties (Ildico Inc. v. U.S., CIT # 18-00136).
Chinese printer cartridge exporter Ninestar Corp. argued that it didn't need to exhaust its administrative remedies regarding its listing on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List before seeking judicial review because the case arises under the Administrative Procedure Act. As a result, exhaustion is required only when an agency rule requires appeal before review, Ninestar said (Ninestar Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).
Scheduled maintenance on the Court of International Trade's CM/ECF system will make it unavailable to users Feb. 17, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. EST, the court announced.