Electric scooters, known has hoverboards, were assessed duties under the wrong Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading upon entry into the U.S., importer 3BTech said in an Oct. 15 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Kicking off litigation in its customs battle, 3BTech argued that even if CBP's HTS subheading of choice is correct, the products were granted Section 301 China tariff exclusions (3BTech, Inc. v. United States, CIT #20-00159).
Court of International Trade activity
The Court of International Trade ordered on Oct. 18 that the U.S. must serve amended answers to 25 of importer Greenlight Organic's requests for admission in a case over the importer's alleged misclassification of imports to skirt duties. Granting Greenlight's motion to compel in part and denying it in part, CIT said that the U.S. only has to respond to 25 of Greenlight's 116 RFAs. CIT found that the U.S. did not have to respond to a host of other RFAs related to the date of discovery of Greenlight's alleged fraud since RFAs are to be used to identify undisputed facts, and the date of discovery of the fraud is not undisputed, the court said.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade granted in part, and denied in part, the Department of Justice's motion to extend the discovery period in a customs classification dispute, in an Oct. 14 order. Ordering the parties to consult on potentially extending the discovery period to allow the U.S. to depose an expert witness at a time convenient to both parties, Judge Timothy Stanceu struck a compromise between DOJ's desire to take the deposition and the plaintiffs' claims that an extended discovery period would prejudice it.
The Court of International Trade granted the Department of Justice's motion to stay a case challenging the expansion of Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum “derivatives,” in an Oct. 14 order, due in part to the defendant's likelihood of succeeding on appeal. Finding that a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion indicates DOJ's chances of success at the appellate court, CIT also stayed any resulting liquidation but noted that the fact pattern in the present case reads differently from that of the recent Federal Circuit case.
The Commerce Department found that a countervailing duty investigation respondent's U.S. customers did not use China's Export Buyer's Credit Program in the investigation's final determination despite the Chinese government's continued failure to provide information, indicating a potential shift in how the agency will approach how it verifies non-use of the program.
The Commerce Department switched to finding the all-others rate in an antidumping duty review using a weighted average of the respondents' rates rather than a simple average, in Oct. 13 remand results at the Court of International Trade. Still defending its use of the simple average in other hypothetical circumstances, Commerce nevertheless made the switch to weighted average, using CBP entry data for one of the respondents (Pro-Team Coil Nail Enterprise, Inc., et al. v. United States, CIT Consol. #18-00027).
The Court of International Trade granted the Justice Department's motion to stay a case challenging the expansion of Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum "derivatives," in an Oct. 14 order, due in part, to the defendant's likelihood of succeeding on appeal. A majority panel at CIT found in the case that President Donald Trump's 2018 decision to expand the Section 232 duties onto the derivative products was made beyond the 105-day deadline laid out in the Section 232 statute. The court now recognizes that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in Transpacific Steel LLC, et al. v. U.S., permitting the president to take Section 232 tariff actions beyond procedural deadlines, indicates the DOJ's likelihood of succeeding in its appeal.
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 14 granted in part, and denied in part, the Justice Department's motion to extend the discovery period in a dispute over the tariff classification of electrical conduit. DOJ moved to extend the discovery period for over a month to take the deposition of an expert witness. Plaintiff Shamrock Building Materials argued that this extension would prejudice it and should be denied due to DOJ's lack of diligence.
The International Trade Commission granted four Curtis Mallet-Prevost lawyers access to a safeguard proceeding on behalf of LG Electronics, potentially ending a dispute at the Court of International Trade over denied access (see 2110130037) (LG Electronics USA, Inc., et al. v. United States, CIT 21-00520). The ITC's one-page letter does not address larger issues in the case, such as the commission's power to deny access at all