CBP and One World Technologies have agreed to settle a lawsuit on the agency’s seizures of the company’s imported garage door openers, the Court of international Trade said as it dismissed the case May 9. The settlement comes after an International Trade Commission administrative law judge recommended the ITC find the redesigned garage door openers aren’t covered by a Section 337 limited exclusion order issued in March 2018 (see 1803280024).
A Michigan man was sentenced to two years in prison May 8 for illegally importing and distributing kratom, the Department of Justice said in a press release. Matthew Dailey pleaded guilty in January to charges of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and importing merchandise contrary to law, agreeing also to forfeit $1,000,000 in illegal proceeds.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 8 affirmed a lower court’s denial of an injunction to an importer challenging the effective date of an antidumping duty increase. Sumec, an importer of solar cells, sought an order barring liquidation of its entries after a Court of International Trade decision that raised the rate of its exporter, but before notice of that increase was published in the Federal Register. CAFC, like CIT, held the order unnecessary because an injunction covering those entries has already been issued in another case and, even without an injunction, the government admits the entries should be liquidated if the importer wins the case.
The Department of Justice on May 7 released a guidance document for its lawyers on the mitigation of penalties in False Claims Act cases. Under the new policy, “cooperation credit” in False Claims Act cases can be earned “by voluntarily disclosing misconduct unknown to the government, cooperating in an ongoing investigation, or undertaking remedial measures in response to a violation,” DOJ said in a press release. That applies even where the government has already launched an investigation if the misconduct being disclosed is not part of the government investigation’s scope, it said. DOJ will also take into account corrective action by companies, such as “undertaking a thorough analysis of the root cause of the misconduct, appropriately disciplining or replacing those responsible for the misconduct, accepting responsibility for the violation and implementing or improving compliance programs to prevent a recurrence,” it said. Cooperation credit will usually take the form of a reduction in the damages multiplier and civil penalties, DOJ said. There has been a general uptick in False Claims Act whistleblower cases related to customs violations in recent years (see 1806140044).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 29 - May 5:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 22-28:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of April 15-21:
The National Association of Manufacturers lawsuit against CBP and the Department of the Treasury over limits to drawback for goods subject to excise taxes seems to have a "good likelihood of success," law firm Neville Peterson said in an April 19 blog post. Specifically, NAM has a good argument that CBP's change for excise tax drawback "conflicts directly with the language of Section 313 of the Tariff Act, as amended by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA)," the law firm said. "On this point, NAM would seem to have a clear path to victory." That's because "Treasury’s proposal to limit [federal excise taxes (FET)] was first proposed as a change of practice in 2007, when the prior version of the drawback statute was in effect, and withdrawn in 2009," Neville Peterson said. "As amended by TFTEA, however, the drawback statute clearly forecloses the government’s position, since it indicates that the amount of FET drawback to be paid is that which 'would have been charged had the exported merchandise been imported.'”
Recent Court of International Trade decisions leave the door open for confusion among importers and customs brokers on tariff classification, customs lawyer Larry Friedman said in an April 17 blog post. Though CIT found in an April 8 decision that use is not a consideration when classifying locking pliers imported by Irwin Industrial Tool Company(see 1904100037), it’s still unclear when use should or should not be considered in light of a 2014 Federal Circuit decision that use should be considered when classifying GRK wood screws (see 14080420). Neither tariff provision includes the terms “for use as” or “for use with,” both of which clearly signal a use provision. “Classification is a legal analysis. It is, at the same time, also performed every day by thousands of non-lawyers who are engaged in making compliance decisions for importers large and small,” Friedman said. “Even licensed brokers are not always fully aware of the details of the legal analysis of tariff language. Bright line tests are necessary to facilitate trade and to avoid creating traps for the average importer, for whom the statute is allegedly written in the language or ordinary commerce.”
A California man was arrested April 16 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement said he ran a multimillion-dollar scheme that smuggled counterfeit Apple and Samsung cellphone parts from China into the U.S. for sale to the public. Chan Hung Le faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison if convicted. Le, who owns Irvine, California-based EZ Elektronix, started the import scheme in 2010, ICE said in a press release.