The Court of International Trade ordered that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative delay the effective date for a planned withdrawal of an exclusion to Section 201 safeguard measures. The Oct. 25 order, which was approved by Judge Gary Katzmann, followed an agreement between the Justice Department and Invenergy Renewables, which filed a challenge to the withdrawal. Invenergy, which is represented by Crowell and Moring, filed a complaint on Oct. 22 that asked the CIT for an injunction blocking the withdrawal due to what the company said were various statutory violations. The USTR on Oct. 9 said it would withdraw the exclusion for bifacial solar panels consisting only of bifacial solar cells on Oct. 28. Both sides agreed to extend the effective date to Nov. 8. That will give the CIT "additional time to address the arguments that the parties put forth in their respective filings and, thus, foster the just, speedy, and inexpensive resolution of this action," Invenergy said in an Oct. 25 filing.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently denied a petition from Ford Motor Company to reconsider its recent decision that Ford Transit passenger vans converted into cargo vans post-importation are nonetheless classified in the tariff schedule as cargo vans (see 1906070061). Trade groups had criticized the June 7 ruling in briefs filed in support of Ford’s rehearing requests, arguing that the Federal Circuit’s consideration of the van’s use after importation upends a century of precedent on the current tariff classification scheme, and results in confusion for importers (see 1908070066). Ford’s lawyer did not immediately comment on the company’s next steps.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 14-20:

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 18 overturned updated agreements suspending antidumping and countervailing duties on sugar from Mexico, finding Commerce illegally withheld information on conversations with Mexican sugar producers during the 2017 negotiations on the deal. The court held that Commerce’s failure to write memorandums detailing those conversations meant CSC Sugar, a U.S. importer and refiner of Mexican sugar that opposes the updated suspension agreements, did not have a chance to comment on the substance of parts of the underlying negotiations. Commerce is required by law and its own regulations to keep a complete administrative record of AD/CVD proceedings, CIT said.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 7-13:

A recent CBP ruling that found Volvo cars assembled in Sweden from Chinese subassemblies are products of China (see 1910030014) is “almost certainly wrong,” and throws into doubt whether substantial transformation applies to all assembled goods, Larry Friedman of Barnes Richardson said in an Oct. 6 blog post.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 30 - Oct. 6:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 23-29:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 16-22:

Dip Shipping Company, a New Orleans-based freight forwarder, agreed to plead guilty to antitrust violation allegations as part of a plea agreement, the Department of Justice said in a Sept. 17 news release. "Dip Shipping is the first company to be charged and to agree to plead guilty in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation in the freight forwarding industry," the DOJ said. The company will pay a criminal fine of about $488,000. Some company executives had already pleaded guilty to the price fixing after being charged last year (see 1807050035), the DOJ said. Roberto Dip and Jason Handal were sentenced to prison terms in June.