Importer FCMT on Oct. 16 dismissed three cases it brought at the Court of International Trade on CBP's appraisal of its apparel entries. The company filed a trio of complaints in May claiming that CBP failed to use the products' transaction value to appraise the merchandise and that CBP engaged in an "arbitrary and fictitious appraisement" of the merchandise (see 2506020020). FCMT said CBP appraised the Chinese merchandise using an "unknown method of appraisement" and merely increased the value of the merchandise by 148% (FCMT v. United States, CIT #s 21-00242, -00243, -00247).
Crutchfield, a consumer electronics seller, filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court on Oct. 17 challenging the legality of President Donald Trump's tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In the brief, the company highlighted the harms imposed on "American retailers" by the tariffs and argued that the "plain language" of IEEPA and the Constitution don't grant the president "unprecedented, unilateral, and unreviewable" tariff authority (Donald J. Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, U.S. 25-250) (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, U.S. 24-1287).
Importer Veregy Central argued that CBP improperly assessed hefty antidumping and countervailing duties on its solar cell imports from Thailand and Vietnam. In a complaint filed with the Court of International Trade on Oct. 17, Veregy said its goods were properly excluded from these duties due to President Joe Biden's duty pause on solar cells and modules from Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia, since its imports were within the scope of the AD/CVD orders on Chinese solar cells and were consumed in the U.S. within 24 months of Biden's proclamation announcing the duty pause (Veregy Central v. United States, CIT # 25-00229).
President Donald Trump told reporters on Oct. 15 that he would like to attend the Nov. 5 oral argument at the Supreme Court regarding whether he can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs. After declaring that the tariffs he has imposed are essential for economic and national security matters, Trump said: "I'm going to go to the Supreme Court to watch it. I've not done that, and I've had some pretty big cases."
The U.S. will appeal a recent Court of International Trade decision vacating the Commerce Department's decision not to collect antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (Auxin Solar v. United States, CIT # 23-00274).
The New Zealand government on Oct. 16 opposed conservation group Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders NZ's motion for the Court of International Trade to reconsider its decision not to immediately impose an import ban on seafood and seafood products from set net and trawl fisheries off New Zealand's North Island. Reconsideration motions under CIT Rule 59(e), like the conservation group's, can only be applied to judgments, and the trade court hasn't issued a judgment here, merely a remand, the New Zealand government argued (Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders NZ v. National Marine Fisheries Service, CIT # 24-00218).
Three different solar cell and module exporters recently filed their opening briefs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a pair of cases on the Commerce Department's findings that the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on Chinese solar cells and modules are being circumvented through Thailand and Cambodia (Trina Solar Science & Technology (Thailand) v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1940) (BYD (H.K.) v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1937).
Chinese drone maker SZ DJI Technology said this week that it will appeal a recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denying the company's challenge to its designation as a Chinese military company. DJI will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (SZ DJI Technology v. U.S. Department of Defense, D.D.C. # 24-02970).
Tapered roller bearing exporter Shanghai Tainai Bearing and importer C&U Americas filed a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Oct. 14, arguing, among other things, that the U.S. failed to adequately defend the Commerce Department's selection of Romanian firm Timken Romania as part of the surrogate value calculations. Tainai added that Commerce illegally decided to deduct the cost of Section 301 duties from the company's U.S. price in the 2019-20 review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China (Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1405).
Exporter Kangdi Electric Vehicle (Hainan) and its affiliated importer Kandi America filed a pair of complaints at the Court of International Trade on Oct. 14 to contest the International Trade Commission's and Commerce Department's affirmative finding of critical circumstances regarding Chinese low speed personal transportation vehicles from China (Kangdi Electric Vehicle (Hainan) v. United States, CIT #'s 25-00201, -00202).