The U.S. dropped its appeal of the Court of International Trade's decision vacating the Commerce Department's duty "pause" on collection of antidumping duties and countervailing duties on solar cells and modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed the appeal on Feb. 5 upon the government's request, though the issue continues to be litigated in a separate appeal led by the American Clean Power Association (Auxin Solar v. United States, Fed. Cir. #s 25-2120, 26-1072).
CBP has released its Feb. 4 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 60, No. 5). It contains no ruling notices nor Court of International Trade slip opinions.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 26 - Feb. 1:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 2 affirmed the Court of International Trade's ruling that the International Trade Commission's policy of automatically redacting questionnaire responses violates the "common law right of access" to judicial proceedings. Judges Timothy Dyk, Richard Taranto and Raymond Chen held that the relevant statutes governing redactions of information before both CIT and the commission don't "abrogate" this common law right nor allow the ITC's practice.
The Supreme Court's delay in issuing its much-anticipated decision on the fate of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act is not a sign in favor of the government, according to Ted Murphy, a customs lawyer at Sidley Austin. A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of the government’s defense during oral argument, leading him to believe that the Court will strike down the measures.
The U.S. Lumber Coalition in a Jan. 28 letter urged the U.S. trade representative to scrap the USMCA binational panel review system during the USMCA review process. The coalition said binational panel review "gives powers to international tribunals that the Constitution reserves for U.S. courts" and establishes tribunals immune from "constitutional oversight or democratic accountability."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of Jan. 12-18 and 19-25:
An importer filed a lawsuit Jan. 27 challenging the application of informal CBP guidance on Section 232 steel and aluminum content valuation to its entries of machine screws and fasteners.
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 27 agreed to importer Atlas Power's preferred classification for its Nvidia Crypto Mining Processor 170HX printed circuit assemblies, though it ultimately ruled that the products failed to qualify for three different exclusions from Section 301 China tariffs.
Importer Arc Polymers launched a customs case at the Court of International Trade on Jan. 23 concerning the classification of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin scrap. Arc argued that CBP improperly classified the goods as "other" PET products under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 3907.61.0050, dutiable at 6.5%, instead of under duty-free subheading 3915.10.00 as ethylene polymer waste (Arc Polymers v. United States, CIT # 26-00823).