TCL’s North American smartphone subsidiary became one of the largest importers to join the massive Section 301 litigation when it filed a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Like the roughly 3,500 other lawsuits inundating the court, TCT Mobile (US) seeks to get the List 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese goods vacated and the duties refunded with interest. TCT's claims “accrued with each and every entry of products” with List 3 or 4A tariff exposure, said the company. The action was filed within two years of the date that TCT paid the duties, it said, satisfying the court’s statute of limitations requirement on the timeliness of complaints. “With a mobile handset product portfolio that includes TCL and Alcatel devices,” TCT is “the fourth largest handset manufacturer in North America,” it said. The complaint lists two dozen import categories for which TCT has List 3 or 4A tariff exposure. Most are for capital goods, packaging materials or components, including lithium-ion batteries. Finished smartphones that TCT imports from China under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.12.00 subheading are on List 4B. The Trump administration postponed indefinitely the 15% tariffs on List 4B goods from taking effect in December 2019 after reaching the phase one trade deal with China (see 1912130042).

The U.S. Court of International Trade plans to “proceed first” on choosing a “representative sample” of test cases to manage the roughly 3,500 Section 301 complaints inundating the court, said an order (in Pacer) signed Tuesday by the three-judge panel of Mark Barnett, Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves. All the suits seek to get the Lists 3 and 4A Chinese tariffs vacated and the duties refunded with interest. “The court expects that the number of sample cases identified will be small enough to permit the efficient disposition of this litigation while allowing the court to consider all claims raised by the various Plaintiffs,” said the order. “The court anticipates issuing a stay of all Section 301 cases assigned to the panel that are not selected to proceed as sample cases.” It set a March 19 deadline for plaintiff attorneys to submit a “coordinated proposal” on the test cases and to suggest lawyers to sit on a steering committee. Lawyers who think their complaint “would not be represented by a sample case proposal” or feel they belong on the steering committee have until March 26 to appeal, it said. Most court observers think the first-filed HMTX Industries/Jasco Products litigation is a shoo-in for one of the test cases. Virtually all the complaints argue the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative overstepped its Section 301 authority under the 1974 Trade Act by imposing retaliatory tariffs against the Chinese and that it violated the Administrative Procedure Act by running tariff rulemakings that lacked transparency. A few complaints make the additional argument that USTR acted unconstitutionally by taxing importers.

Global trade rules “need to continue to evolve” under the Biden administration and new leadership at the World Trade Organization, blogged Semiconductor Industry Association Director-Global Policy Devi Keller Tuesday. U.S.-China trade tensions during the Trump administration “put into sharp relief the reality that we need stronger disciplines to tackle challenges related to state subsidies and state-owned enterprises,” she said. Cybersecurity barriers to trade, forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft are “other areas in great need of attention at the WTO and elsewhere,” she said. Washington policymakers also have the opportunity “to leverage trade policy to tackle large-scale global challenges,” like COVID-19, climate change and bridging the digital divide, said Keller. The pandemic “accentuated the importance of technology products to our societies,” she said. Tech devices “have kept people healthy, employed, and connected during this crisis,” she said. “Semiconductor innovation is the foundational technology for all these transformational products.”

The U.S. Court of International Trade gave DOJ a March 12 deadline for filing a “master answer” of its defenses “in law or fact” to the roughly 3,500 complaints filed since September to get the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods vacated and the duties refunded, said a procedural order (in Pacer) signed Wednesday by the three-judge panel assigned Friday to handle the massive litigation (see 2102050038). DOJ’s answer on behalf of all the defendants shouldn't attempt to “cross-reference” specific paragraphs in the various complaints, but “in a ‘generic’ manner admit or deny (including denials based on lack of information and belief) the allegations typically included in claims made against them as well as make such additional allegations as are appropriate to their defenses,” said the order. It would be DOJ’s first opportunity to defend the allegations in virtually all the complaints that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative under the Trump administration overstepped its Section 301 authority when it imposed the retaliatory Lists 3 and 4A tariffs against the Chinese and violated the Administrative Procedure Act by conducting tariff rulemakings that lacked transparency. Judges Mark Barnett, Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves devised a “master case” procedure “to reduce the time and expense of duplicate filings of documents,” said the order. When DOJ files its answer in the new master case docket 21-cv00052-3JP, the document “will constitute an answer” in each Section 301 case already filed and yet to be filed in the future, except when DOJ later files “a separate answer in an individual case,” it said. Lawyers in the early going of the Section 301 litigation complained DOJ broke court rules when it filed procedural papers only in the docket of the first-filed HMTX Industries/Jasco Products case, and not in each of the dockets of the thousands of cases that followed. When pleadings, motions and other relevant documents are docketed in the master case, it will be as if they have been docketed in all the individual cases, said the order. Documents germane only to a specific case would still be filed in the individual case's docket, it said.

Apple remained the world’s top semiconductor customer in 2020, comprising 11.9% of global chip spending, reported Gartner Tuesday. Samsung was second with 8.1% share, and Huawei barely inched out Lenovo for third with 4.2% share, it said. Huawei significantly decreased its semiconductor spending in 2020 to $19.09 billion, down 23.5% from 2019, said Gartner. Trump administration export restrictions on Huawei limited its ability to buy semiconductors, but the Chinese market “remains important for semiconductor vendors, as other Chinese smartphone OEMs stepped in to fill the vacuum created by Huawei in the second half,” said analyst Masatsune Yamaji.

Imports at the largest U.S. retail container ports are expected to set new monthly records into the summer as the economy continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, reported the National Retail Federation Monday. U.S. ports handled 2.11 million 20-foot-long containers or their equivalents in December, up 0.2% from November and 22.3% higher than in December 2019, said NRF. That brought 2020 to 22 million containers, up 1.9% from 2019, beating the previous record of 21.8 million in 2018. “The import numbers we’re seeing reflect retailers’ expectations for consumer demand to the point that many factories in Asia that normally close for Chinese New Year this month are remaining open to keep up,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president-supply chain and customs policy. “Regardless of whether it’s in-store or on retailers’ websites, the record holiday season and numbers for 2020 show consumers are buying again and have been for a while.”

U.S. importers sourced record quantities of laptops, tablets and TVs in 2020 to meet historically high demand for connectivity and home entertainment gear during COVID-19 lockdowns, according to Census Bureau data we accessed Sunday through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. The 125.68 million laptops and tablets shipped here in 2020 under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8471.30.01 subheading was a 22.6% increase from 2019 and the most in any year since Census began reporting that HTS category in 2007. Q4 shipments of 43.44 million laptops was the highest quarterly volume recorded, rising 18.4% sequentially from Q3 and 39.5% year over year. U.S. importers took delivery of 52.12 million TV sets in 2020, up 30.9% from a year earlier and the most in any year since Census began keeping HTS 8528.72.64 records in 2016 for flat-panel TV imports. Q4 shipments of 15.04 million sets were down 14.6% sequentially from Q3 but up 39.6% from the 2019 quarter. It was a banner year for TVs imported here under the HTS 8528.72.64.30 subheading with 30- to 35-inch screen sizes. Unit volume for the year in that class increased 77.1% to 10.06 million sets. Q4 imports of 2.89 million sets were down 17.9% sequentially from Q3 but up 127.6% from the 2019 quarter. TV imports in larger screen sizes also increased significantly from a year earlier, though not nearly by the same magnitude. Shipments of HTS 8528.72.64.60 sets with screen sizes exceeding 45 inches were up 20.9% year over year to 28.96 million. Imports of 35- to 45-inch sets under HTS 8528.72.64.40 increased 32.2% to 11.22 million.

Specialized Bicycle Components, a bicycle parts and accessories company, joined thousands of other importers inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade with litigation seeking to vacate the List 3 and 4A Section 301 rulemakings on Chinese tariffs and get the duties refunded. But with Robert Lighthizer’s departure as U.S. trade representative at the close of the Trump administration, Specialized Bicycle's complaint was the first we know of to name USTR Deputy General Counsel Maria Pagan as a defendant. Other actions filed after Jan. 20 continued naming Lighthizer or targeted his former agency without citing any officials. In Pagan’s capacity as acting USTR, “she oversees USTR’s decisions regarding List 3 and List 4,” said the Thursday lawsuit (in Pacer). The nomination of Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden’s pick to succeed Lighthizer as USTR, “is pending confirmation by the Senate, although the Senate Finance Committee has yet to announce a date for her confirmation hearing,” said the complaint. The bicycle importer stands to ultimately cash in well if plaintiffs prevail in the litigation and the court orders the refunds. Its complaint lists nearly five dozen categories of imports with List 3 tariff exposure and 11 on List 4A.

Black History Month “is a time to honor the heroes who sacrificed in service of equality and equal opportunity for African Americans,” said the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Tuesday in the agency's first media statement under the Biden administration. The new administration “is committed to building back a better economy that advances racial justice and equity, beginning with an inclusive pandemic recovery,” it said. The Senate Finance Committee hasn’t scheduled a confirmation hearing for Katherine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee to succeed Robert Lighthizer as USTR.

Three Republican senators are concerned that commerce secretary nominee Gina Raimondo’s “suggesting that all aspects of the approach to U.S. economic and technological competition are up for review” would include Commerce Department restrictions on Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei. Raimondo said during her confirmation hearing that the U.S. should protect its networks against Chinese interference and didn't commit to keep Huawei on the Bureau of Industry and Security’s entity list (see 2101260063). The White House later clarified that President Joe Biden’s administration views Huawei as a threat to national security (see 2101270064). “Although we agree that some export controls, the Entity List, and Foreign Direct Product Rule could be reviewed to strengthen their application, we do not agree that such a review is necessary or desirable in the case of Huawei,” Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Ben Sasse of Nebraska wrote Raimondo Friday: “Without an effort to cut off Huawei … there are no market-based solutions to protect our allies’ companies or create the space for Americans or other trusted actors to compete.” They want her to explain whether she foresees “any scenario in which you would … either remove Huawei, or its subsidiaries, or spin-off companies from the Entity List (or expand any related general licenses), or, would permit any relaxation of the Foreign Direct Product Rule as it relates to 5G technology.” If other Commerce Department nominees “do not make clear that they will adhere to these broad concerns and objectives, they may face substantial opposition from Congress,” the senators said.