CIT Assigns Another IEEPA Case to Three-Judge Panel
The Court of International Trade assigned on Nov. 4 another International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs case to a three-judge panel consisting of Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif and Jane Restani (PGN International Group v. Donald J. Trump, CIT # 25-00240).
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The last case heard by the panel, V.O.S. Selections (see 2505280068), is currently at the Supreme Court. Oral argument was held for it and another case, Learning Resources, on Nov. 5.
The latest case was brought by exporters headed by PGN International Group, an importer of “various industrial parts from India and China” based in Florida. It was joined by 17 other businesses in seeking “the immediate refund, with interest, of all of the unlawful duties collected from plaintiffs.”
The complaint raised many of the same arguments that have appeared in other cases: that any interpretation of the IEEPA as granting an executive tariff power is both inaccurate and barred by the major questions doctrine; that President Donald Trump’s tariffs don’t meet the IEEPA’s own requirements for import restrictions; and that Congress can’t delegate such a broad tariff power to the president regardless of the IEEPA’s language and legislative history.
Among other things, PGN said that Trump’s “claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination,” as trade deficits “are not an emergency,” nor “an unusual and extraordinary threat.”