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.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 14-20:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 7 - Dec. 11 in case they were missed.
Whirlpool Corp. filed a petition on Dec. 16 with the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission asking new antidumping duties on large residential washers from China (A-570-033). The appliance manufacturer alleges that, following the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on large residential washers from South Korea and Mexico, South Korean producers moved production to China and resumed dumping. "This is, in effect, a circumvention case," said the petition.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 7-13:
Level 3, Sprint and Verizon are pressing the FCC to act on a longstanding intercarrier compensation fight between LECs and interexchange carriers (IXCs) over “intraMTA” (major trading area) wireline-wireless traffic. Representatives of the three met with various FCC officials Tuesday to press their case, especially in light of a November decision by Judge Sidney Fitzwater of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, siding with LECs (see 1511200070).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted an International Trade Commission motion for a 30-day extension for filing petitions for rehearing or rehearing en banc (see 1512090014) in the ITC case against corrective orthodontic device manufacturer ClearCorrect. The Federal Circuit approved ITC's motion Thursday, effectively moving the filing deadline for rehearing petitions from Dec. 28 to Jan. 27. ITC's motion said ClearCorrect and intervenor Align Technology didn't oppose the extension request.