CBP released a recently seized ship after a $50 million bond was posted, William McSwain, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, said in a Twitter post. "Progress on our MSC Gayane ship seizure: Today, my Office secured $10 million in cash and a $40 million surety bond from the owner and operator of the vessel in exchange for its temporary release pending a final resolution in this case." The entire ship was seized after more than a billion dollars' worth of cocaine was found aboard the MSC Gayane while at the Port of Philadelphia (see 1907080061).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 8-14:
The Court of International Trade is considering changes to its rules that would update how CBP files required information following a summons, CIT said in a June 27 notice. The amendments to Rule 73.1 "were recommended by the Court's Advisory Committee on Rules," it said. The amendments are meant to make the rules less confusing and improve consistency, the advisory committee said. Comments are due July 29.
A recent Supreme Court case on courts' deference to federal agencies will likely result in tougher legal scrutiny of trade policies made by the Commerce Department, CBP and other agencies that affect trade, said Devin Sikes, a lawyer at Akin Gump. Sikes wrote that the U.S. Court of International Trade and federal appeals courts will be doing deeper reviews of federal agencies' trade regulations that could have ambiguity. "Federal agencies operating in the international trade arena likewise will need to more fully explain their reasons for interpreting a regulation in a particular way," Sikes wrote. "These agencies may no longer assert ambiguity based on the regulation’s terms and expect deference from the courts. Expect an increase in the number of challenges filed contesting an agency’s interpretation of its own regulations."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of July 1-7:
The Court of International Trade's ruling that steel rebar stakes fall within the scope of a Commerce Department antidumping duty order was correct, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a July 2 decision. CIT last year said that the stakes, which are used for holding up grape vines and other plants, are subject to antidumping duties on steel concrete reinforcing bar from China (see 1803130031). Quiedan Company filed the underlying lawsuit with the assertion that the AD order doesn't apply because one side of the stakes is sharpened to a point and the AD order specifies rebar sold in straight lengths. CAFC, like CIT and the Commerce Department, disagreed. "We see no substantive or procedural error in that ruling or in Commerce’s continuation of a suspension of liquidation for Quiedan’s stakes," CAFC said. "Because the Court of International Trade drew the same conclusions, we affirm."
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 24-30:
The 30-day deadline for lawsuits challenging Commerce Department scope rulings is triggered only by physical mailing by post, and not by email, the Court of International Trade said in a July 1 decision that also sustained Commerce’s determination that aluminum pallets made of 6-series alloys are covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China.
The National Association of Manufacturers filed a motion June 24 seeking court orders invalidating portions of CBP’s recent drawback regulations that bar substitution drawback on excise taxes. As in a complaint filed in April (see 1904180046), the trade association said the regulations issued by CBP following enactment of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2016 ignore lawmakers’ general intention to expand drawback, as well as specific instances where Congress has in the past preserved the ability to claim substitution drawback on excise taxes.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 17-23: