Akin Gump lawyers for the Section 301 test plaintiffs and DOJ agree that plaintiffs’ comments on the Aug. 1 lists 3 and 4A tariff remand results by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (see 2208020016) and a government response to those comments would aid the court’s evaluation of the remand results, the two sides said in a joint status report filed Aug. 15 in docket 1:21-cv-52 at the Court of International Trade. They propose that plaintiffs’ comments would be due Sept. 14 and DOJ’s response 30 days later, but the government says the plaintiffs are not entitled to file a reply to the government’s response, as plaintiffs want to do by Nov. 4, the report said. The sides also disagree on the page limits for any future filings, it said. Plaintiffs also are requesting oral argument on the remand results, but the government takes no position on the request.
A law firm representing a plaintiff in a classification case at the Court of International Trade says that its client has become unresponsive and will again ask the court for permission to withdraw its representation as counsel for Guangdong Hongteo Technology Co., Ltd., according to an Aug. 11 status report at CIT (Guangdong Hongteo Technology Co. v. U.S., CIT #20-03776). The firm, Rock Trade Law, has previously tried to withdraw its representation over alleged outstanding legal fees but Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said that since the plaintiff is a company and not a person, Rock Trade Law could not leave the case without substitute counsel first being identified (see 2207110070).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
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The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Court of International Trade should overturn a decision by CBP to classify imported desk pad and planning calendars, importer Blue Sky said in a complaint filed Aug. 4 at the Court of International Trade (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination, LLC v. U.S., CIT #21-00624).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative often found itself weighing the possible harm to U.S. consumers from the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs against the need to give the duties enough teeth to curb China’s allegedly unfair trade practices, the agency said in its 90-page “remand determination,” filed Aug. 1 at the Court of International Trade (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT #21-00052). Submitting its bid to ease the court's concerns over modifications made to the third and fourth tariff waves, USTR provided its justifications for removing various goods from the tariff lists ranging from critical minerals to seafood products.
DOJ asked the Court of International Trade in an Aug. 1 motion on behalf of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for permission to correct the administrative record in the Section 301 litigation to include 136 pages of documents not previously submitted in the cases. Virtually all the documents previously were in the public domain, and they include mostly news releases and Federal Register notices announcing USTR actions connected with the imposition of the four rounds of Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports dating to 2018.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade: