Appellants and domestic mattress petitioners objected July 8 to a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit order to remove mattress importer Zinus’ own appeal from the combined appeal (see 2506250052) (PT. Zinus Global Indonesia v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1674).
The U.S. is trying to rehash settled issues in a customs suit on the classification of Honeywell's precut, radial, chordal and web fabric pieces used in airplane brakes as part of an aircraft, Honeywell argued in a July 14 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. While the government argued that the court should have performed a GRI 2(a) analysis, Honeywell argued that no such analysis was needed and that, even assuming GRI 2 is applicable, "the result is the same" that the parts are properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8803 (Honeywell International v. United States, CIT # 17-00256).
Importer Gum Products International filed a pair of complaints at the Court of International Trade on July 17 to contest the Commerce Department's scope rulings concerning the company's oilfield equipment lubricant and food ingredient products. In both scope determinations, Commerce said the importer's products fall under the scope of the antidumping duty order on xanthan gum from China (Gum Products International v. United States, CIT #'s 25-00108, -00109).
The U.S. opposed two importers' bid to have the Supreme Court hear their challenge to the president's ability to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has a chance to hear the case. The government argued that the high court shouldn't step in before either the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has had a chance to address the claims against the IEEPA tariffs, particularly since both courts are hearing the appeals on very expedited timelines (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).
The Court of International Trade on July 18 granted the government's motion for default judgment against importer Rayson Global and its owner Doris Cheng, ordering the defendants to pay a civil penalty totaling nearly $3.4 million along with all duties, taxes and fees that remain unpaid on the unliquidated entries of mattress innersprings at issue in the case. Judge Timothy Stanceu granted the motion for default judgment after previously rejecting the government's valuation of the merchandise due to its lack of factual support. This time around, Stanceu found that the U.S. properly pleaded that Rayson and Cheng negligently declared their Chinese-origin innerspring as being from Thailand, avoiding ordinary 6% duties, Section 301 duties and 234.51% antidumping duties.
The Court of International Trade on July 18 sustained the results of the Commerce Department's 2021-22 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on stainless steel sheet and strip in coils from Taiwan. Judge Gary Katzmann held that Commerce properly calculated the rate for the non-selected companies "equal to the expected method," which is a weighted average of the two mandatory respondents' adverse facts available rate. Importer CME Acquisitions failed to show that the resulting 21.1% rate isn't "reasonably reflective of the non-selected companies' potential dumping margin," Katzmann held. In addition, the judge said CME Acquisitions "had ample notice and opportunity to provide evidence to the contrary."
The Court of International Trade's decision to vacate the executive orders imposing tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't "withstand close scrutiny," NYU Law School professor Samuel Estreicher and recent law school grad Andrew Babbit said in a blog post.
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. on July 15 opposed importer Simplified's bid to have the Court of International Trade reconsider its stay of proceedings in its case against the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, arguing that Simplified's case will be resolved by the current appeal on the IEEPA tariffs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Emily Ley Paper, d/b/a Simplified v. Donald J. Trump, CIT # 25-00096).
The Commerce Department appropriately stuck with its decision on remand to select Germany as the third country for determining antidumping duty respondent Prochamp's normal value in the AD investigation on Dutch mushrooms, the Court of International Trade held on July 16. Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce fully supported its efforts to account for the percent of Prochamp's product sold to Germany that is actually resold in another country and, thus, its finding that Germany remained the best comparison market.