The Court of International Trade ruled in a March 25 opinion that CBP properly classified eight models of gloves imported by Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing Co. under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 6116.10.55, dutiable at 13.2%. Magid argued for classification in subheading 3926.20.10, free of duty. Judge Timothy Stanceu sided with the government, ruling that heading 6116 and subheading 6116.10.55 describe the gloves in question.
The Court of International Trade dismissed a case brought by the U.S. seeking over $5.7 million in unpaid duties from Katana Racing on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. In the March 28 opinion, Judge Thomas Aquilino found that CBP improperly pursued the violations despite indications of identity theft and that the statute of limitations had run out. "Considering CBP’s apparent recalcitrance in specifying to the defendant the actual §1592(a) violation it committed, the defendant has provided reasonable justification for its revocation of its last [statute of limitations waiver], with the result that this action is now barred by the passage of time," said Aquilino.
The Court of International Trade sustained in a March 28 opinion the International Trade Commission's affirmative injury determinations in the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into wood moldings and millwork products from China. Judge Leo Gordon held that Chinese exporter Jeld-Wen failed to make its case that laminated veneer lumber is not included in the domestic like product for wood mouldings and millwork, and that other economic factors, not imports, caused the domestic injury. On the latter point, Gordon said that Jeld-Wen needed to show that its conclusion is the only one to be drawn from the record and not the preferred one -- something the plaintiff failed to do.
The Court of International Trade partially granted a motion for an injunction in an antidumping duty case, but rejected the mattress companies' bid for an open-ended injunction enjoining liquidation of their entries. Judge Timothy Reif said that the plaintiffs, led by Ashley Furniture Industries, didn't show that the threat of liquidation of their future entries don't pose irreparable harm, a likelihood of success on the merits and that the public interest is served by an open-ended injunction. The judge granted the injunction through the end of the first administrative review of the AD order.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative sought confidential advice from “private-sector advisory committees,” believed to be under the Industry Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) program managed jointly by USTR and the Commerce Department, before imposing the List 3 Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, Stephen Vaughn, the agency’s then-general counsel, wrote then-USTR Robert Lighthizer on Sept. 17, 2018. The document was one of about a dozen “decision memos” spanning 488 pages that DOJ filed March 24 in the Section 301 litigation docket (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT #21-00052) at the Court of International Trade as an “appendix” to oral argument held Feb. 1 (see 2202010059).
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated March 23 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade partially remanded the Commerce Department's final determination in the countervailing duty investigation on utility-scale wind towers from Vietnam, in a March 24 confidential opinion. The U.S. trade group Wind Tower Trade Coalition brought the case to argue in favor of an adverse facts available rate for an exporter. According to the coalition's complaint, the plaintiff challenged Commerce's decision to rely on respondent CS Wind's South Korean affiliate's sales revenue for wind towers as the denominator in the subsidy calculations rather than CS Wind's own sales revenue. The coalition also said that Commerce erred in relying on CS Wind's alleged contradictory reporting on the country of origin and supplies for its steel plate inputs when calculating a subsidy rate for the Import Duty Exemptions on Imports of Raw Materials for Exporting Goods program (Wind Tower Trade Coalition v. U.S., CIT #20-03692).
The Court of International Trade should not grant the Commerce Department's motion to extend the deadline to file remand results in an antidumping duty case, given the agency's mismanagement of the remand period, exporter SeAH Steel Corporation said in a March 24 brief. If the court does grant Commerce's motion, however, the time should only be extended for two business days plus one business hour -- the same time Commerce gave SeAH to file comments on the agency's remand. SeAH dubbed Commerce's conduct "egregious" and an expression of its "failure to consult in good faith" over the remand schedule (Stupp Corporation, et al. v. United States, CIT #15-00334).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied antidumping duty petitioner Welspun Tubular's request for a stay of its mandate during the company's appeal to the Supreme Court. In a March 23 order, Judges William Bryson and Todd Hughes rebuffed both of Welspun's arguments, which claimed that the company would suffer irreparable harm without a stay and that there's a reasonable shot the Supreme Court will reverse the appellate court's judgment (Hyundai Steel Company v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-1748).