The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a statement late on May 27 criticizing a Court of International Trade decision issued that day that kept in place an injunction barring the withdrawal of an exemption for bifacial panels from Section 201 safeguard duties on solar cells (see 2005270025). “Today, Judge Katzmann of the Court of International Trade blocked USTR from closing the bifacial panel exception. USTR strongly disagrees with Judge Katzmann’s analysis,” the statement said. “The solar industry and the jobs it represents are important to this country, and USTR will take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure that its safeguard relief is effective.”
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 18-24:
A marine wildlife conservation group and its New Zealand branch filed suit at the Court of International Trade May 21, seeking a ban on imports of fish and fishery products from New Zealand caught using techniques that they say have driven the Maui dolphin to near extinction. Sea Shepherd and Sea Shepherd New Zealand say the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration improperly denied a 2019 petition for a ban under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. They say the use of gillnet and trawl nets in the waters around New Zealand have caused the numbers of the Maui dolphin to dwindle from 2,000 in 1970 to just 57 dolphins in 2016. The lawsuit requests that CIT issue a lawsuit banning imports of all fish or fish products caught in, or derived from, New Zealand commercial fisheries that use gillnets or trawl nets that result in the incidental kill or incidental serious injury of Maui dolphins.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 11-17:
A penalty action against an alleged importer of prohibited HID headlight conversion kits will proceed, after the Court of International Trade on May 15 denied Kevin Ho’s motion to dismiss the case against him. Ho claimed he never received a final penalty notice, as is required before the government seeks to collect penalties in court, but CIT found that CBP delivered the notice to two of Ho’s known addresses, and that under the “mailbox rule,” that Ho is presumed to have received it.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 4-10:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 27 - May 3:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 20-26:
The Court of International Trade is lifting a now-moot injunction banning imports from Mexican fisheries that rely on practices that threaten the vaquita with extinction, it said in a decision issued April 22. The Natural Resources Defense Council voluntarily moved to dismiss the case after the National Marine Fisheries Service -- in a reversal from the nearly two-year defense mounted by the government -- implemented a ban even further reaching than the advocacy group had sought via its lawsuit (see 2003050043). The injunction had been in place since July 2018 (see 1807260039). Noting the date that his ruling was issued -- Earth Day -- CIT Judge Gary Katzmann called for even more “vigorous international enforcement” against continued threats to the vaquita. “The panda of the sea, the little cow, cannot be replaced,” he concluded the decision, and the case.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 13-19: