The 22-person witness list for the Dec. 29 virtual Section 301 investigative hearing into allegations that Vietnam deliberately undervalued its currency to thwart U.S. economic growth is stacked heavily with people on record as opposing remedial tariffs on Vietnamese imports. Prehearing submissions in docket USTR-2020-0037 foretell some will also testify that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is singling out the wrong country for Section 301 currency manipulation review and is doing so for ulterior motives.

Witnesses from the furniture and cabinet sector in both Vietnam and the U.S. argued that Vietnam has greatly improved its governance over illegal imports of tropical wood and, to whatever degree illegal imports still exist, that wood is not then exported to U.S. buyers.

Twenty-two trade associations and business groups, including CTA and the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), will testify at Tuesday's virtual Trade Act Section 301 investigative hearing convened by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative into allegations of improper Vietnamese currency manipulation, according to a witness list the agency posted Thursday. USTR's release of the schedule obviously signaled its clear intention to proceed with the hearing, in apparent disregard of the two dozen groups that urged a week earlier for the proceeding to be called off and the comments period reopened (see 2012230008).

The U.S. Court of International Trade granted DOJ’s second motion requesting leave to file an updated “schedule of cases” related to the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products Section 301 complaint, said Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu's order (in Pacer) Tuesday in docket 1:20-cv-00177. The motion “concerns overall case management of an unusually large volume of cases, none of which have yet been assigned to an individual Judge,” said DOJ's Tuesday motion. Roughly 3,700 cases have inundated the court, all seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings on Chinese imports and refund the duties. The plaintiffs who responded to DOJ’s Sept. 23 motion (in Pacer) for case management procedures have “generally agreed” the cases other than the HMTX-Jasco action “should be stayed while a test-case procedure is implemented,” said DOJ. The revised schedule of pending cases (in Pacer) attached to the motion spans 194 pages and includes actions filed through Monday. Cases have continued trickling, at least one a day. All assert timeliness under the court’s two-year statute of limitations, dating to first payment of the List 3 tariffs upon the entry of goods in 2018.

The U.S. Court of International Trade granted a Department of Justice motion requesting leave to file an updated “schedule of cases” related to the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products Section 301 complaint, according to Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu's Dec. 22 order in docket 1:20-cv-00177. The motion “concerns overall case management of an unusually large volume of cases, none of which have yet been assigned to an individual Judge,” DOJ said. Roughly 3,700 cases have inundated the court, all seeking to vacate the lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings on Chinese imports and refunding the duties. The plaintiffs that responded to DOJ’s Sept. 23 motion (see 2009240026) for case management procedures have “generally agreed” that the cases other than the first-filed HMTX-Jasco action “should be stayed while a test-case procedure is implemented,” DOJ said. A schedule of pending cases attached to the motion was updated Dec. 22 and now spans 194 pages, and includes actions filed through Dec. 21.

The U.S. Court of International Trade granted DOJ’s second motion requesting leave to file an updated “schedule of cases” related to the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products Section 301 complaint, said Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu's order (in Pacer) Tuesday in docket 1:20-cv-00177. The motion “concerns overall case management of an unusually large volume of cases, none of which have yet been assigned to an individual Judge,” said DOJ's Tuesday motion. Roughly 3,700 cases have inundated the court, all seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings on Chinese imports and refund the duties. The plaintiffs who responded to DOJ’s Sept. 23 motion (in Pacer) for case management procedures have “generally agreed” the cases other than the HMTX-Jasco action “should be stayed while a test-case procedure is implemented,” said DOJ. The revised schedule of pending cases (in Pacer) attached to the motion spans 194 pages and includes actions filed through Monday. Cases have continued trickling, at least one a day. All assert timeliness under the court’s two-year statute of limitations, dating to first payment of the List 3 tariffs upon the entry of goods in 2018.

The U.S. Court of International Trade granted DOJ’s second motion requesting leave to file an updated “schedule of cases” related to the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products Section 301 complaint, said Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu's order (in Pacer) Tuesday in docket 1:20-cv-00177. The motion “concerns overall case management of an unusually large volume of cases, none of which have yet been assigned to an individual Judge,” said DOJ's Tuesday motion. Roughly 3,700 cases have inundated the court, all seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings on Chinese imports and refund the duties. The plaintiffs who responded to DOJ’s Sept. 23 motion (in Pacer) for case management procedures have “generally agreed” the cases other than the HMTX-Jasco action “should be stayed while a test-case procedure is implemented,” said DOJ. The revised schedule of pending cases (in Pacer) attached to the motion spans 194 pages and includes actions filed through Monday. Cases have continued trickling, at least one a day. All assert timeliness under the court’s two-year statute of limitations, dating to first payment of the List 3 tariffs upon the entry of goods in 2018.

Two dozen trade associations and business groups, including CTA and the National Retail Federation, urged the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to delay Tuesday’s Section 301 investigative hearing into Vietnam’s alleged currency manipulation practices to allow time to digest the Treasury Department’s Dec. 16 report blasting Vietnam’s trade behavior. The report is “of critical importance” to the Section 301 investigation but was released six days after the deadline for comments and requests to appear at the hearing, wrote the groups Friday. Treasury’s finding “could have substantial impact on the ongoing investigation,” they said. “Interested parties should be given an opportunity to comment on this report” before USTR finishes its investigation, they said: Stakeholders are “entitled to a meaningful opportunity to be heard” under the Administrative Procedure Act and the Constitution. The Retail Industry Leaders Association, Semiconductor Industry Association and U.S. Chamber of Commerce also signed the letter. Treasury’s report said Vietnam was one of several “major U.S. trading partners” that “intervened in the foreign exchange market in a sustained, asymmetric manner.” Vietnam also met and exceeded Treasury’s “objective criteria” for identifying “potentially unfair currency practices or excessive external imbalances, which could weigh on U.S. growth or harm U.S. workers and firms,” said the report. If any of the groups that wrote seeking the hearing delay got an answer from USTR, "I have not heard about it yet," emailed CTA Vice President-International Trade Sage Chandler Wednesday. USTR didn’t respond to questions.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative released a list of witnesses slated to testify during the Dec. 29 Section 301 hearing on Vietnam currency manipulation. The agency hasn't addressed a request from trade associations that USTR delay the hearing in order to consider a Dec. 16 Treasury Department report blasting the Vietnam government for tampering with the foreign exchange market “in a sustained, asymmetric manner,” to the detriment of U.S. interests. Treasury released the report nearly a week after the deadline passed for submitting requests to appear at the USTR hearing.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, joined by five Republicans and two Democrats on the committee, told the Office of Management and Budget that a proposed rule to carve out items under Section 301 tariffs from de minimis needs “a thorough and complete review,” including a public comment period of 60 days. However, the letter was not signed by either of the two men who might be the chairman in January, depending on which party controls the Senate.