There’s been a steady recent uptick in the volume of Section 301 complaints at the Court of International Trade, but lawyers with active cases told us they're not sure if that has anything to do with the two-year anniversary of the Federal Register notice on Aug. 20, 2019, that put the List 4A tariffs into effect on Sept. 1, 2019, on goods from China. All the roughly 3,800 complaints inundating the court, and counting, seek to vacate the lists 3 and 4A tariffs and get the paid tariffs refunded on grounds that the duties are unlawful under the 1974 Trade Act and violate 1930 Administrative Procedure Act protections against sloppy rulemakings.

The following are short summaries of recent CBP “NY” rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:

There’s a steady recent uptick in the volume of Section 301 complaints at the U.S. Court of International Trade, but lawyers with active cases told us they're not sure if that’s to do with Friday’s two-year anniversary of the Federal Register notice on Aug. 20, 2019, that put the List 4A tariffs into effect on Sept. 1, 2019, on goods from China. All the roughly 3,800 complaints (and counting) inundating the court seek to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariffs and get the money refunded on grounds that the duties are unlawful under the 1974 Trade Act and violate 1930 Administrative Procedure Act protections against sloppy rulemakings.

The U.S. Court of International Trade scheduled a status conference in the Section 301 litigation for 10 a.m. Sept. 1, in an order Wednesday. That's two days before Customs and Border Protection is required to create a repository for importers to request liquidation suspensions of customs entries from China with Lists 3 or 4A tariff exposure. The court has extended the deadline three times since ordering CBP to establish the repository in its July 6 preliminary injunction order (see 2108170027). The plaintiffs’ steering committee and DOJ negotiated agreements on some previously contested terms for setting up the repository, but are still far apart on others.

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Aug. 17 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The U.S. Court of International Trade scheduled a status conference in the Section 301 litigation for 10 a.m. Sept. 1, in an order Wednesday. That's two days before Customs and Border Protection is required to create a repository for importers to request liquidation suspensions of customs entries from China with Lists 3 or 4A tariff exposure. The court has extended the deadline three times since ordering CBP to establish the repository in its July 6 preliminary injunction order (see 2108170027). The plaintiffs’ steering committee and DOJ negotiated agreements on some previously contested terms for setting up the repository, but are still far apart on others.

The U.S. Court of International Trade, per an order Aug. 18, scheduled a status conference in the Section 301 litigation for 10 a.m. on Sept. 1, two days before CBP is required to create a repository for importers to request liquidation suspensions of customs entries from China with lists 3 or 4A tariff exposure. The court has extended the deadline three times since ordering CBP to establish the repository in its July 6 preliminary injunction order (see 2108170049). The plaintiffs’ steering committee and the Department of Justice negotiated agreements on some previously contested terms for setting up the repository but are still far apart on others.

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Aug. 17. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:

The U.S. Court of International Trade extended to Sept. 3 from this Friday the deadline for Customs and Border Protection to create a repository for importers to request suspending liquidations of customs entries from China with Section 301 Lists 3 or 4A tariff exposure, said an order signed Monday by Judges Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves. It’s the court's third deadline extension since Kelly and Choe-Groves ordered CBP to establish the repository in their July 6 preliminary injunction order. The judges also extended to Oct. 4 from Sept. 2 the PI order’s temporary restraint period when no customs entries can liquidate, with or without the repository. An Aug. 9 joint status report found the plaintiffs’ steering committee and DOJ reaching agreement on some previously contested terms for setting up the repository but still far apart on others.