Paul Gluckman

First-quarter consumer tech imports in the key categories of smartphones, laptops, tablets and TVs declined somewhat from Q4, but remained well ahead of their Q1 2020 volumes, according to Census data accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. As the National Retail Federation reported, the robust year-over-year Q1 growth rates in some import categories may have been “artificially high” due to comparisons with first quarter 2020, when much of the Asian supply chain was mired in the first COVID-19 global lockdowns.

The Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods imposed under President Donald Trump had “a significant impact” on Panasonic North America, Jeff Werner, vice president-corporate and government affairs, told the Consumer Technology Association virtual Innovation Policy Summit April 14. “We did everything we could to sort of mitigate that, including a robust use of the exclusions process,” he said.

The briefing schedule in the massive Section 301 litigation inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade will end Nov. 15, said an order signed April 13 by the three-judge panel of Mark Barnett, Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves. It was a small victory for Akin Gump lawyers for sample case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products, which had asked in their joint status report April 12 for the Nov. 15 deadline (see 2104130036). The Department of Justice wanted a Dec. 23 deadline, saying it feared attorneys in the 3,700 stayed cases would file a large volume of amicus briefs that the government would need time to respond to.

Broad disagreement separates the HMTX-Jasco plaintiffs from the government in the massive Section 301 litigation over the issue of whether importers who prevail on the merits of the case would be entitled to tariff refunds on customs entries for which liquidations become final, according to a joint status report filed April 12 with the Court of International Trade.

The three-judge panel in the Section 301 litigation inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade granted Akin Gump’s coordinated proposal designating the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products complaint as the sole sample case, a procedural order said March 31. Judges also stayed the roughly 3,700 other cases and approved the seating of a 15-member plaintiffs steering committee, also as Akin Gump proposed.

The Department of Justice appears to be digging in for a fight over the issue of refund relief against the thousands of Section 301 plaintiffs inundating the Court of International Trade seeking to have it declare the lists 3 and 4A Chinese tariffs unlawful. The government won’t support a stipulation in which the plaintiffs, if successful in the massive litigation, could seek refunds of all tariffs paid, regardless of the imports’ liquidation status, including whether the 12-month window on protesting individual liquidations has expired, a DOJ response filed March 26 said.

Lawyers for the roughly 3,700 Section 301 complaints inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade reached consensus on picking the first-filed HMTX Industries-Jasco Products action as the sole sample case in the massive litigation and on seating 15 among their ranks for the plaintiffs’ steering committee, HMTX-Jasco counsel Akin Gump said in the lawyers’ “coordinated proposal” March 19. Though plaintiffs “cannot guarantee 100% agreement on every issue on behalf of every single counsel,” they are “not aware of any objection to this proposal after repeated consultations and opportunities for review,” it said.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, acting at the “direction” of President Donald Trump, had the authority under the 1974 Trade Act to impose the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, argued a Department of Justice "master answer" filed March 12 in one among a series of “anticipated defenses” it plans to mount against the massive litigation inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade. The defenses were layered with a series of fallback arguments, some contradicting others. Lawyers asked about the filing said the tactic is common, based on the proven strategy that DOJ needs only one argument to stick.

Imports of major high-demand consumer tech goods waned somewhat in January from December, but most categories remained far ahead of their January 2020 volume, according to Census Bureau trade statistics accessed March 9 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. It’s unclear whether the retreat in January shipments in major Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) tech categories was the result of global semiconductor shortages that impeded supply or were perhaps the first signs that torrid COVID-19 pandemic-era consumer demand for home connectivity and entertainment tools evident through most of 2020 was beginning to run its course.

The coming weeks will mark some important deadlines in the Section 301 litigation inundating the U.S. Court of International Trade after months of inertia. New complaints keep trickling in at the rate of about one a day to join the roughly 3,500 on file beginning since mid-September, virtually all seeking to get the lists 3 and 4A Chinese tariffs vacated and the duties refunded. Many thousands more importers are represented in the filings.