John Foote, former chief of Kelley Drye's customs practice, has joined Sidley as a partner in the global arbitration, trade and advocacy practice, the firm announced. Foote, who worked at Kelley Drye since 2020, represents clients on various customs matters at both the administrative and judicial levels, including classification, valuation, country of origin, drawback, tariff exclusions, withhold release orders and antidumping/countervailing duty evasion issues, Sidley said. Prior to joining Kelley Drye, Foote worked as an associate and partner at Baker McKenzie for six years.
The Court of International Trade's ruling that a product is "imported" for duty drawback purposes when it's admitted into a foreign-trade zone and not when entered for domestic consumption would lead to a partial repeal of the FTZ Act, importer King Maker Marketing argued in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. King Maker said the trade court's decision would lead to "absurd and anomalous results," since it would require finding the clock for drawback claims to start before the right to make the claim accrues (King Maker Marketing v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1819).
Countervailing duty petitioner Titan Tire dropped its case on the 2022 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on pneumatic off-the-road tires from India, according to a stipulation of dismissal filed at the Court of International Trade on Sept. 26 (Titan Tire Corp. v. United States, CIT # 24-00207).
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The Court of International Trade properly found that a product is "imported" for duty drawback purposes when it's admitted into a foreign-trade zone and not when entered for domestic consumption, the U.S. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Sept. 11 reply brief. The government said CIT properly defined the term "importations" according to both common meaning and judicial precedent as "foreign merchandise coming into the United States" (King Maker Marketing v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1819).
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department rejected a submission from respondent Assan Aluminyum as untimely in its third remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation on common alloy aluminum sheet from Turkey at the Court of International Trade. Despite accepting the submission in its second remand results, the agency said on remand that the information in the submission didn't correct information from the company's earlier submission but rather was an "untimely effort by Assan to supplement its own prior questionnaire response" (Assan Aluminyum Sanayi ve Ticaret v. United States, CIT Consol. # 21-00246).
The Commerce Department permissibly decided not to countervail India's Advanced Authorization Scheme, which is akin to an advance drawback system, in the 2021 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on new pneumatic off-the-road tires, the Court of International Trade held in a decision made public Aug. 29.
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."
Cigarette manufacturer Scottsdale Tobacco said in an Aug. 13 motion for judgment that it was wrongly denied drawback for its Canada-origin paper-wrapped cigarettes entered in 2018 and 2019 (Scottsdale Tobacco v. United States, CIT # 24-00022).