The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit during oral argument on Sept. 3 strongly questioned the U.S. in a customs case on whether cookware imports from Meyer Corp. qualify for first sale treatment. Judges Sharon Prost, Todd Hughes and Tiffany Cunningham questioned the government's defense of the Court of International Trade's decision to deny Meyer first sale valuation seemingly based on an adverse inference drawn against the company for its failure to submit its parent company's financial information (Meyer Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1570).
The Court of International Trade on Sept. 3 granted Seko Customs Brokerage's bid to voluntarily dismiss its case against CBP's temporary suspension of the brokerage from the Entry Type 86 pilot and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism programs at the Court of International Trade. Counsel for Seko didn't immediately respond to a request for comment (Seko Customs Brokerage v. United States, CIT # 24-00097).
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 28 denied both the government's and importer HyAxiom's motions for judgment in a customs classification case on PC50 supermodules, which are a part of a stationary hydrogen fuel cell generator known as the PureCell Model 400. Judge Timothy Stanceu said a factual determination is needed on whether the PC50's "principal function" is gas generation.
CBP has released its Aug. 28 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 34). The bulletin includes two decisions, one on the extension of import restrictions imposed on certain archaeological material of Algeria and the other on the tuna tariff-rate quota for calendar year 2024.
The Commerce Department is amending final results of the countervailing duty administrative review on narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge from China (C-570-953) originally published July 28, 2021, to align with the final decision in a court case that challenged a rate in those results.
The U.S. told the Court of International Trade on Aug. 23 that exporter Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. doesn't have statutory or constitutional standing to challenge CBP's denial of the company's request to remove it from a withhold release order (WRO) on silica-based products made by its parent company Hoshine Silicon and its subsidiaries (Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00048).
Conservation groups Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit seeking an import ban on fish from New Zealand's West Coast North Island inshore trawl and set net fisheries under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (Sea Shepherd New Zealand v. U.S., CIT # 20-00112).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Aug. 12-18:
CBP has released its Aug. 21 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 58, No. 33), which includes the following ruling action:
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of an antidumping duty administrative review on xanthan gum from China (A-570-985) to align its revised results with the final decision in a court case that challenged rate calculations in those results. In that review, covering subject merchandise entered July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020, one company, Neimenggu Fufeng Biotechnologies Co., Ltd. and several affiliates, was given a zero percent AD rate, and three other companies were given rates above de minimis.