Federal Circuit Says Protests Needed for Retroactive Section 301 Duty Exclusion
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Sept. 6 opinion said the Court of International Trade was right to toss a suit from two importers seeking to retroactively apply Section 301 tariff exclusions. The trade court held…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
that it did not have subject-matter jurisdiction under Section 1581(i) but would have had jurisdiction under Section 1581(a) had the importers, ARP Materials and Harrison Steel Castings, filed protests with CBP. The Federal Circuit agreed, holding that the suit contests CBP's assessment of the duties and not USTR's exclusions and the importers had ample chance to file a protest as ARP's exclusions were granted months before the deadline to file a protest for the relevant entries. The court ruled that Harrison's entries, which were granted exclusions beyond the 180-day deadline to file a protest, also would have had the chance to request a refund via a post summary correction, making Section 1581(a) the proper jurisdiction for the challenge.