International trade attorney Elyssa Kutner has resigned from Sidley Austin, according to a notice Kutner filed at the Court of International Trade. Kutner joined Sidley in 2020 as an associate, moving to counsel in January 2024. At the firm, she covered U.S. customs law and import compliance. Prior to joining Sidley, she worked as an associate at ArentFox and Neville Peterson.
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body on April 25 agreed to establish a panel to review the EU's countervailing duties on new battery electric vehicles from China. The panel was created following China's second request to do so, because Beijing says the CVD violate Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (see 2408140010).
Guatemala and Peru told the World Trade Organization on April 23 that they resolved a dispute brought by Guatemala against Peru's additional duties on imports of certain agricultural products. The Guatemalan government said Peru "has adopted the necessary measures to comply with the recommendations and rulings" of the Dispute Settlement Body. Specifically, the dispute concerned Peru's variable additional duties on agricultural products, which were calculated under a price band system. A DSB panel previously found that Peru's duties violate WTO commitments.
The EU opened arbitration proceedings at the World Trade Organization on April 24 to review a dispute panel's findings on China's enforcement of intellectual property rights. The EU started the proceedings under the WTO's Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), which has been regarded by some nations as an alternative to the defunct Appellate Body. The WTO said the case marks the second time both the EU and China have turned to the MPIA to settle a dispute between them.
The following lawsuit was filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
Labor advocacy group International Rights Advocates filed a lawsuit this week against Starbucks on behalf of eight individuals who were trafficked and forced to work on "Starbucks-controlled coffee plantations in Brazil." The complaint, brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks class certification for all trafficked laborers in Brazil and alleges that Starbucks knowingly benefitted from this slave labor, which took place on thousands of supplier plantations (John Doe I v. Starbucks Corporation, D.D.C. # 25-01261).
A third case challenging President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act has been filed at the Court of International Trade by a group of 11 companies, most of which make tabletop games. The companies, led by clothing maker Princess Awesome LLC, argue that the IEEPA doesn't authorize tariffs, Trump's declared national emergencies fail to meet the "statutory requirement of an 'unusual and extraordinary threat'" and IEEPA unconstitutionally transfers legislative power to the president (Princess Awesome v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CIT # 25-00078).
The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on April 25 transferred a case filed by four members of the Blackfeet Nation tribe challenging the tariffs on Canada issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to the Court of International Trade. Judge Dana Christensen held that two cases establishing the trade court's exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases arising out of the Trading With the Enemy Act, IEEPA's predecessor, confirm CIT's exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases involving IEEPA, given that IEEPA has the "same operative language as that contained in the TWEA" (Susan Webber v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, D.Mont. # 4:25-00026).
No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.
Importer Under the Weather on April 23 dismissed its customs case at the Court of International Trade after the trade court refused to let the company add a claim regarding CBP's prior tariff treatment of its imported pop-up tent "pods" to its complaint (see 2504150053) (Under the Weather v. United States, CIT # 21-00211).