The Court of International Trade granted importer DS Services of America's motion for a preliminary injunction in its case seeking to reinstate a previously granted exclusion from Section 301 China duties for water coolers classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8418.69.0120. The court's order suspends the liquidation of the plaintiff's unliquidated entries while allowing the U.S. to continue to collect Section 301 duties, as the injunction is structured like a statutory injunction routinely entered in antidumping and countervailing duty cases (DS Services of America v. United States, CIT #22-00157).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
As senators who support subsidies to build semiconductor chips in the U.S. continue to say the trade title differences are holding up the bill, and that it should drop out, House negotiators say it's not time to give up yet.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has 32 extra days, until Aug. 1, to file its Lists 3 and 4A tariff remand results in the Section 301 litigation, said an order in docket 1:21-cv-52 signed Wednesday by the three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of International Trade. DOJ, on USTR’s behalf, asked for a 60-day extension to Aug. 30 to fix its Administrative Procedure Act violations, citing the volume of work required to meet the remand order, plus the agency’s limited staff resources and the additional projects compounding its workload (see 2206210030). Akin Gump lawyers for test-case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products urged the court to stick to its original June 30 deadline, arguing USTR shouldn’t be given more time to do a new post hoc review of the submitted Lists 3 and 4A comments and hearing testimony. If USTR needs an additional deadline extension beyond Aug. 1, DOJ “should address in greater detail” USTR’s reasons for the request, said Wednesday’s order. It cited language in the April 1 remand order that the agency may further explain only the justifications it previously gave for imposing the Lists 3 and 4A tariffs without introducing new rationales that didn’t exist before. A joint status report from DOJ and the plaintiffs is due 14 days after the remand results are filed, including a proposed schedule “for the further disposition of this litigation,” said Wednesday’s order.
The fate of the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, plus any new tariff exclusions process that may be imposed, “are under consideration for a decision as we speak right now,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce. The Biden administration asked Congress for $76.54 million in USTR funding for fiscal 2023, an 8% increase from the $71 million appropriated in FY 2022.
A lawyer who has represented clients whose goods were detained over suspicion of forced labor says the new document laying out the strategy on enforcing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is not earth-shattering.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has 32 extra days, until Aug. 1, to file its lists 3 and 4A tariff remand results in the Section 301 litigation, a three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade said in a June 22 order. DOJ, on USTR’s behalf, asked for a 60-day extension to Aug. 30 to fix its Administrative Procedure Act violations, citing the volume of work required to meet the remand order, plus the agency’s limited staff resources and the additional projects compounding its workload (see 2206210042).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has 32 extra days, until Aug. 1, to file its lists 3 and 4A tariff remand results in the Section 301 litigation, a three-judge panel at the Court of International Trade said in a June 22 order. DOJ, on USTR’s behalf, asked for a 60-day extension to Aug. 30 to fix its Administrative Procedure Act violations, citing the volume of work required to meet the remand order, plus the agency’s limited staff resources and the additional projects compounding its workload (see 2206210042).
The chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee highlighted in her opening remarks Congress' directive to the U.S. trade representative to establish an exclusion process for Section 301 tariffs. But when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., tried to ask USTR Katherine Tai about how her office is "working to comply with this directive," Tai evaded the question and talked about the deliberations in the administration on whether there should be a partial rollback of the tariffs on the vast majority of Chinese imports.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative can’t demonstrate good cause for a Section 301 remand deadline extension “that would leave uncured its established legal violation for another two months to the continuing detriment of American businesses and consumers,” said Akin Gump lawyers for Section 301 litigation test plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products in an opposition brief Tuesday at the U.S. Court of International Trade in docket 1:21-cv-52.