The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on June 23 upheld a jury's determination that importer Sigma Corp. is liable under the False Claims Act for lying about whether its imports were subject to antidumping duties. Judges Michelle Friedland and Mark Bennett said no errors of law were made against Sigma and that the federal district court, not the Court of International Trade, had jurisdiction in the case (Island Industries v. Sigma Corp., 9th Cir. # 22-55063).

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, wanted to include trade items in the bill that extends and expands Trump income tax cuts, according to a lobbyist on trade matters.

Major Asian trading partners may be diverging as countries try to avoid U.S. tariffs jumping from 10% to rates in the mid 20s.

Producing scrubs in Haiti allows American firms to avoid 29% tariffs on pants, 16% tariffs on tops, and still import the fabric from Asia. But the trade preferences for Haiti known as HOPE/HELP expire in three months and 11 days, and Republicans who control the voting calendar are not reassuring the companies that it will be renewed on time.

The Senate version of the tax bill moving through Congress cut out two trade-related provisions that passed the House -- one, which would end de minimis for all imports in July 2027, and the other, curtailing drawback for tobacco products.

Members of the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee voted unanimously to recommend that CBP beef up its communications with the trade by providing more transparency over when CBP updates the FAQs that the agency has been using to inform the trade on how it's implementing new tariffs.

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President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters as he flew back a day early from the Group of 7 summit in Canada, called both Japan and the EU tough negotiators, but said there's a chance that a deal can be arrived at with Japan.

Two importers challenging tariffs imposed under the international Emergency Economic Powers Act, Learning Resources and Hand2Mind, petitioned the Supreme Court June 17 to hear their case in a bid to accelerate the resolution of the challenges to President Donald Trump's IEEPA tariffs. The companies, represented by Akin Gump, said the high court should hear the case now in "light of the tariffs’ massive impact on virtually every business and consumer across the Nation, and the unremitting whiplash caused by the unfettered tariffing power the President claims" (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).

The additional in-quota Section 232 tariff rate for British cars will be 7.5% under a deal recently concluded with the U.K., so that the combined most-favored nation and 232 tariff will be 10% as long as imports are under the 100,000 annual tariff rate quota amount, beginning seven days after the June 16 executive order is published in the Federal Register.