The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 6-12:
Carrie Owens, former director of enforcement operations at CBP, has joined Kelley Drye as a partner in the international trade practice group, the firm announced. She will serve as co-chair of Kelley Drye's customs practice. Owens joins the private sector after two decades in federal government service, which began in 2005 when she started at the Commerce Department as a senior attorney. She went to CBP in 2010 as a branch chief and supervising attorney before being elevated to director in 2016.
Two trade associations -- the National Fisheries Institute and the Restaurant Law Center -- and 10 seafood importers challenged the National Marine Fisheries Service's comparability findings of 240 fisheries across 46 nations (see 2509020014), which will lead to an import ban on all seafood products from these fisheries effective Jan. 1, 2026, at the Court of International Trade (National Fisheries Institute v. United States, CIT # 25-00223).
The Court of International Trade upheld CBP's determination, made on remand, that importer Scioto Valley Woodworking, Inc., evaded the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China. In a decision made public Oct. 9, Judge Lisa Wang rejected Scioto's claim that CBP can only make an affirmative evasion finding if it finds the importer to actually have imported covered merchandise through evasion, and the judge found the evasion determination to be supported by substantial evidence.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 29 - Oct. 5:
Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pressed counsel for importer Blue Sky the Color of Imagination and the government during oral argument on Oct. 7 in the importer's customs classification suit on its notebooks with calendars. During the argument, Judges Alan Lourie, Raymond Chen and William Bryson grappled with whether the court is bound by its 2010 ruling in Mead v. U.S. and whether the goods are properly classified as calendars or diaries (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1710).
John Foote, former chief of Kelley Drye's customs practice, has joined Sidley as a partner in the global arbitration, trade and advocacy practice, the firm announced. Foote, who worked at Kelley Drye since 2020, represents clients on various customs matters at both the administrative and judicial levels, including classification, valuation, country of origin, drawback, tariff exclusions, withhold release orders and antidumping/countervailing duty evasion issues, Sidley said. Prior to joining Kelley Drye, Foote worked as an associate and partner at Baker McKenzie for six years.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sept. 30 vacated a decision from USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to "switch to a new system for mitigating the risk of a pest outbreak caused by imported Chilean table grapes." Judge Amir Ali held that the action was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act (California Table Grape Commission v. U.S. Dep't of Ag., D.D.C. # 24-02645).
A Los Angeles-based wholesale clothing importer and two of its executives were sentenced on Sept. 29 for avoiding payment of over $8 million in customs duties on imported clothing and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced.
Two Colorado companies and their top executives were indicted last month for conspiring to evade tariff payments on their imports of forklifts, DOJ announced on Sept. 30. The companies, Endless Sales and Octane Forklifts; current executives Brian Firkins and Jeffrey Blasdel; and former executive J.R. Antczak allegedly conspired to undervalue the forklifts from China at entry, then hide their Chinese origin and sell them to federal government agencies by declaring them to be made in the U.S.