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After talks with the Commerce Department broke down over when Hong Kong-based apparel company Changji Esquel Textile (CJE) could be dropped from the agency's entity list, CJE resumed its litigation against the designation in federal court. The company, part of the Esquel group, on Aug. 27 filed a motion to re-set a hearing on a preliminary injunction against its placement on the list.
CBP's enforcement of forced labor-related withhold release orders is marred by due process violations, an unreasonable standard of evidence, absence of transparency and arbitrary decisions, the American Apparel and Footwear Association said in an Aug. 26 proposed amicus brief filed at the Court of International Trade. Seeking to file the brief in a challenge over CBP's exclusion of Virtus Nutrition's palm oil imports from entry to the U.S. over forced labor allegations, the association's brief more broadly criticizes CBP's forced labor policies (Virtus Nutrition, LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00165).
The defendant-intervenor in an antidumping duty case, the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, backed the Commerce Department's motion for voluntary remand since court precedent supports granting remands to correct issues in underlying determinations for the courts to review. Making its case in an Aug. 9 response, the union said that preventing Commerce from performing the review laid out in the remand would "serve no legitimate purpose." In another filing, the union opposed the case's mandatory respondent from intervening in the case due to an untimely bid (Pirelli Tyre Co., Ltd. et al. v. United States, CIT #20-00115).
Changi Esquel Textile (CJE), a Hong Kong-based apparel company and part of the Esquel group of companies, filed for a preliminary injunction on July 19 against its placement on the Commerce Department's Entity List. The company is seeking the injunction even though it expects an announcement soon on potential changes to its status on the list, it said. "The government has informed Plaintiffs that there will likely be a development regarding CJE’s continued Entity List designation by August 1," the company said.
The Commerce Department swapped the surrogate labor data it used to calculate normal value in an antidumping investigation after it reconsidered evidence showing signs of forced labor in Malaysia's electrical and electronics [E&E] sector, according to July 8 remand results filed in the Court of International Trade. Finding that this forced labor unfairly skewed the labor costs for consideration as surrogate data, Commerce instead opted to use International Labor Comparisons data for Mexico in 2016 to determine the surrogate labor value (New American Keg v. United States, CIT #20-00008).
Changji Esquel Textile (CJE), a Hong Kong-based apparel company and part of the Esquel group of companies, filed a July 6 lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to have its placement on the Commerce Department's Entity List dropped (Changji Esquel Textile Co. Ltd. et al. v. Gina M. Raimondo et al., D.C. Cir. #21-01798). The Trump administration put CJE on the list last year for alleged practices of using forced labor from the Muslim Uyghur minority population in China's Xinjiang region.
Cynthia Whittenburg, who retired as CBP deputy executive assistant commissioner in the Office of Trade earlier this year (see 2102090059), joined the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America Educational Institute (NEI) as an associate director, the trade association said in an emailed July 6 news release. Whittenburg will “assist in expanding the delivery of our content though institutions of higher learning as well as other appropriate avenues as well as assist in the development of additional courses needed to continue our mission,” NEI Executive Director Kiko Zuniga said. “Some of these courses will deal with current issues such as forced labor, USMCA, to name a few.” While at CBP, Whittenburg helped in examining the need for continuing education requirements for customs brokers (see 1910160056), an issue that CBP is still working on and that the NEI is following closely (see 2105040004).
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with some recent top stories. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with some recent top stories. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.