Nearly 1,000 lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 21-27 (see 2009220029 and 2009220014). For a full list, see the PACER database.
The Department of Justice ignored the rules of the Court of International Trade when it filed its motion for case management procedures (see 2009240026) in the original Section 301 litigation docket and not those of the other complaints, Husch Blackwell argued in court papers Sept. 25. The firm sued on behalf of 3A Composites USA and more than seven dozen other importers Sept. 18, and filed a second complaint for Flexfab Horizons International and five other plaintiffs Sept. 21. Both complaints, like the more than 3,400 others, seek to vacate the List 3 and List 4A tariffs and get the duties refunded. DOJ’s motion gave no explanation of why it “believes it needs to rush to put the procedures it suggests in place, or why its failure to follow the Court’s rules is justified,” Husch Blackwell said. The firm “only became aware of this Motion” through “a reference to it in the trade press, at which time we retrieved a copy of the Government’s Motion in the HMTX case from the Court’s docket in that separate case,” it said.
An auto parts company founded by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is among the thousands that filed a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade seeking a refund of tariffs paid on lists 3 and 4 of the Section 301 tariffs. International Automotive Components Group North America filed its suit Sept. 18, represented by solo practitioner Kyl Kirby. While Ross is no longer directly involved with IAC and is not named as defendant in the lawsuit, he has been supportive of the administration's broad use of tariffs. The Commerce Department didn't return a request for comment. A spokesperson for IAC said “we cannot comment on pending legal matters.”
More than 2,000 lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 14-20 (see 2009220029). For a full list, see the PACER database.
Companies and lawyers quickly followed the example of a vinyl tile importer that sued the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and said the imposition of Section 301 tariff lists 3 and 4 were beyond the agency's authority (see 2009110005). A variety of industries filed similar lawsuits over the past day in the hopes of preserving rights to any resulting refunds, with more filings likely. In addition to Akin Gump, which filed the original suit for tile importer HMTX Industries, Barnes Richardson, Grunfeld Desiderio, Rock Trade Law, Thompson Hine and Craven Trade Law are representing companies in the challenges. Companies that joined in the litigation include Fastenal, Otter Products, Nelco Products and the Apex Tool Group. While many lawyers recently said that a court filing is necessary soon to preserve the rights to any refunds, some questions remain about the specifics (see 2009160056).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 7-13:
The Department of Justice and Daimler AG reached a $1.5 billion settlement related to the import and sales of vehicles that included devices used to evade emissions standards, DOJ said in a Sept. 14 news release. The settlement addresses allegations made in civil complaint that said “from 2009 to 2016, Daimler manufactured, imported, and sold more than 250,000 diesel Sprinter vans and passenger cars with undisclosed [auxiliary emission control devices (AECDs)] and defeat devices programmed into the vehicles’ complex emissions control software.”
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 31 - Sept. 6:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 24-30:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 17-23: