The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 18-24:
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 20 sustained (here) a Commerce Department redetermination finding Meridian refrigerator door trim kits are “finished goods kits” exempt from antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968). Commerce completed the redetermination under protest, having been told by the court in June that non-extruded aluminum parts are not necessary for a product to qualify for the finished goods kit exemption (see 1506240022). According to Commerce, the court’s interpretation would mean a single aluminum extrusion part shipped by fasteners would qualify for the exemption. However, CIT said it “fails to understand why that would be the case,” continuing to find Meridian’s trim kits are exempt from duties, despite containing only aluminum extrusions and fasteners.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 11-17:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 4-10:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 28 - Jan. 3:
A complaint recently filed by the Justice Department against Volkswagen in Detroit federal court alleges the car manufacturer violated Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act regulations by importing vehicles that did not match its certificates of conformity on file with EPA, said EPA in a press release (here). The Jan. 4 civil complaint (here) stems from recent allegations that VW hid excessive emissions from federal emissions testing through use of a system that modified engine behavior during the EPA test procedure. It says VW did not list the devices on its certificates of conformity for the vehicles it manufactured and imported, seeking penalties at over $30,000 per car and alleging over 580,000 cars were in violation. DOJ also seeks penalties from VW for including the devices, which are in themselves illegal, on its cars, and for tampering. DOJ will seek to transfer its case and “fully participate in the pretrial proceedings now initiated in the related multi-district litigation in the Northern District of California,” it said.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 30 denied a challenge to CBP’s collection of harbor maintenance fees on bunker fuel distributed to the Ports of San Diego and Los Angeles, finding the distributor could not dispute the case in court because it did not file a valid protest with CBP (here). The Jankovich Company had argued the bunker fuel was not subject to HMF because it is not commercial cargo. In response, CBP held in a ruling that payment of HMF on the bunker fuel shipments was required. Despite several requests for reconsideration of the ruling, Jankovich never filed a protest to dispute the collection of HMF, even though the regulation on HMF, 19 CFR 24.24, explicitly provides for the filing of protests. Finding Jankovich did not follow the administrative procedures to get its day in court, CIT dismissed the case.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 28 rejected a new interpretation from the Commerce Department on the coverage of antidumping duties on petroleum wax candles from China, again sending a recent scope ruling back to the agency for a redetermination (here). The court held the agency to a strict interpretation of the scope, finding only a limited set of candle shapes subject to antidumping duties.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 21-27:
Lawyers for the U.S. government recently conceded an apparent victory to an importer in a Court of International Trade case on the extent to which the government can reliquidate entries that have deemed liquidated. In a Dec. 21 filing that marked a reversal from its previous position, the government moved for liquidation “as entered” for an entry by Consolidated Fibers that it had previously reliquidated at a higher rate, even though the entry had deemed liquidated nearly three years earlier.