Just as the recent flood of Section 301 litigation had appeared to slow to a trickle, importers added more than two dozen more lawsuits last week to the multitude of cases currently before the Court of International Trade. But while the new complaints restate the same arguments made by thousands of other plaintiffs in the sprawling litigation, many of the new cases differ in that they seek to invalidate only List 4 tariffs, excluding List 3 from the requests.

With President-elect Joe Biden said to be reluctant to commit to changing 25% tariffs on $250 million worth of imports from China, a recent Congressional Research Service report contains suggestions that could point to a possible off-ramp. The report, released Nov. 23, says that Section 301 actions terminate automatically after four years, unless the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative receives a request for continuation, and conducts a review that determines the tariffs should continue.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 16-22:

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden's choice for secretary of state, has said that the Section 301 tariffs on China and Section 232 tariffs on Europe “harm our own people,” according to coverage of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce talk he gave in September. “We would use tariffs when they’re needed, but backed by a strategy and a plan,” he added. Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said, “The EU is the largest market in the world. We need to improve our economic relations, and we need to bring to an end an artificial trade war that the Trump administration has started,” Reuters reported from the Chamber talk.

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Nov. 16-20 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

Parties wishing to appear at a Dec. 29 online hearing on alleged Vietnamese currency manipulation must make a request to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative by Dec. 10, including a testimony summary. The Section 301 investigation will examine how the intervention in exchange rates in Vietnam burdens American commerce. After the hearing, rebuttals can be submitted until 11:59 p.m. Jan. 7, 2021.

Two dozen individual importers filed Section 301 lawsuits at the U.S. Court of International Trade Thursday on an exceptionally busy day for litigation seeking to overturn the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods, court records show. Attorney Elon Pollack of Stein Shostak in Los Angeles filed all but one of the actions on behalf of small apparel importers seeking to get only the List 4A rulemaking vacated and the tariffs refunded. Pollack left the List 3 tariffs out of the complaints, setting his actions virtually alone among the roughly 3,700 complaints filed since Sept. 10. Pollack's argument establishes Aug. 20, 2019, when the List 4A notice was published in the Federal Register, as the date when the two-year clock on the statute of limitations began. Like virtually all the other lawsuits, Pollack argues the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative overstepped its 1974 Trade Act authority when it imposed List 4A as retaliatory duties against the Chinese. USTR's List 4A rulemaking also was “arbitrary and capricious” in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because it “did not provide a sufficient opportunity for comment, failed to meaningfully consider relevant factors when making their decisions, and failed to adequately explain their rationale,” he argued on behalf of importer client Ya Ya Creations (in Pacer). The one complaint (in Pacer) Thursday that wasn’t Pollack’s was filed on behalf of Bissell home care products by the Dallas law firm Polsinelli. Attorney Michelle Schulz modeled her complaint after most of the others, seeking to vacate the Lists 3 and 4A tariffs. Bissell is “entitled to declaratory judgment” that USTR’s actions were “contrary to law,” said Schulz. USTR didn’t respond to questions Friday.

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Nov. 20. The following headquarters rulings were modified recently, according to CBP:

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden's choice for secretary of state, has said that the Section 301 tariffs on China and Section 232 tariffs on Europe “harm our own people,” according to coverage of a U.S. Chamber of Commerce talk he gave in September. “We would use tariffs when they’re needed, but backed by a strategy and a plan,” he added. Blinken, who served as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama, said, “The EU is the largest market in the world. We need to improve our economic relations, and we need to bring to an end an artificial trade war that the Trump administration has started,” Reuters reported from the Chamber talk.

C.H. Robinson “identified potential savings for its customers of roughly $980 million related to exclusion refunds” since the first Section 301 tariffs were put in place in 2018, the company said in a recent news release. Some 96% of those are “product-specific which require a more complex, time-consuming analysis for qualification,” it said. “The U.S.-China trade war has added another layer of complexity to what has been a challenging global transportation market over the past year,” said Mike Short, president of global forwarding at C.H. Robinson. “As we have consulted with businesses of all sizes, it’s clear that the biggest barriers to duty recovery for these companies are a lack of time, data, and expertise to navigate the complex and lengthy application process.” The last of the exclusions expire Dec. 31.