The Court of International Trade on July 18 granted the government's motion for default judgment against importer Rayson Global and its owner Doris Cheng for negligently failing to pay ordinary, Section 301 and antidumping duties on its innerspring entries. Judge Timothy Stanceu granted the motion, after previously rejecting it for insufficiently pleaded facts, ordering Rayson and Cheng to pay a nearly $3.4 million penalty and all unpaid duties, taxes and cash deposits on the unliquidated entries in the case (U.S. v. Rayson Global, Inc. and Doris Cheng, CIT # 23-00201).

The Court of International Trade on July 18 granted the government's motion for default judgment against importer Rayson Global and its owner Doris Cheng, ordering the defendants to pay a civil penalty totaling nearly $3.4 million along with all duties, taxes and fees that remain unpaid on the unliquidated entries of mattress innersprings at issue in the case. Judge Timothy Stanceu granted the motion for default judgment after previously rejecting the government's valuation of the merchandise due to its lack of factual support. This time around, Stanceu found that the U.S. properly pleaded that Rayson and Cheng negligently declared their Chinese-origin innerspring as being from Thailand, avoiding ordinary 6% duties, Section 301 duties and 234.51% antidumping duties.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched a Section 301 investigation on Brazilian policies that discriminate against American firms, naming these issues:

The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated between July 7 and July 14 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 filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 7-13:

Domestic shrimpers, crawfish harvesters and the Oregon Trawl Commission asked the U.S. trade representative to open a Section 301 investigation to address the unfair trade practice of using "banned veterinary drugs in farm-raised seafood production from China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam" for seafood exported to the U.S.

The Commerce Department is launching a pair of Section 232 investigations into imports of drones and polysilicon from China, according to notices released July 14. Comments are due on Aug. 6 for polysilicon and its derivatives and for drones and their parts.

The following lawsuit was filed recently at the Court of International Trade:

Power supply and cables importer PowerTec Solutions agreed on July 8 to the government’s partial motion to dismiss the importer's case seeking a duty refund (PowerTec Solutions International v. United States, CIT # 22-00322).

Five different groups of amici on July 8 filed briefs in the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the legality of President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. All five briefs argued against the tariffs, though they differed in their specific approach or legal arguments (V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, Fed. Cir. # 25-1812).