The International Trade Commission is seeking comments on any public interest issues in a pair of complaints about violations of the Tariff Act:
A federal judge rejected Hitachi’s bid for a new trial in a patent infringement suit against TPV Technology, ruling that Hitachi’s claims of allegedly false testimony didn’t warrant retrying the case.
The Court of International Trade dismissed on Sept. 18 an importer’s challenge to the assessment of additional antidumping duties on nine entries of wooden bedroom furniture from China, because the importer hadn’t yet paid the duties as required for a court hearing. Importer E & S Express said CBP could have assessed at least some of the duties on a continuous bond E & S had with a surety. CIT ruled that what CBP could have done is irrelevant, because the law makes actual payment of duties mandatory before a denied protest can be challenged under 28 USC 1581(a).
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 3 - Sept. 6 in case they were missed.
A Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) proposed rulemaking will inhibit job creation, national economic growth and increase regulations, National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) Vice President Geoffrey Powell said in testimony on Sept. 10 (here). The testimony was delivered to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation during a hearing on maritime transportation regulations. Powell said the rulemaking, on regulations for Ocean Transport Intermediary (OTI) licensing and financial responsibility requirements would increase regulatory costs on the segment of the maritime industry referred to as ocean transportation intermediaries.
The U.S. International Trade Commission said it began preliminary phase antidumping and countervailing duty investigations (Nos. 701-TA-501 and 731-TA-1226 (Preliminary)) to decide if there's a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry or potential industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury due to imports of chlorinated isocyanurates from China and Japan. The imports are alleged to be sold in the U.S. at less than fair value by Japan and alleged to be subsidized by China, it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled for Sept. 10.
The Department of Agriculture (USDA)-issued country of origin labeling (COOL) regime on foreign meat products and livestock is set to face critical legal tests both domestically and internationally in the coming days and weeks. Canada will likely seek to establish a WTO compliance panel over the most recent COOL iteration, issued by the USDA's Agriculture Marketing Service on May 23, when the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) reconvenes Sept. 25, said industry officials and lawyers. On Aug. 30, the U.S. rejected a Canadian request to establish another compliance panel in the dispute (here). Industry officials and lawyers said WTO procedure permits a party to reject on only one occasion.
Nike's new trademark suit against a freight forwarder raises new questions about liability of service providers for counterfeiting violations, industry lawyers said. While the dispute began as one of a string of trademark cases against customs brokers, Nike expanded the lawsuit in August to directly allege counterfeiting by City Ocean. The forwarder has since moved to dismiss the case, and some lawyers agree that Nike’s arguments are threadbare at the moment. But the lawyer who first brought City Ocean into the case as a third party defendant says the forwarder, and CBP as well, should have noticed the allegedly counterfeit shipments were not as advertised.
The Court of International Trade denied on Sept. 4 a constitutional challenge to the requirement that importers pay duties in full before challenging a customs protest. International Custom Products had argued that it faced payment of an insurmountable sum, but the court said the requirement is set in stone. The challenge revolved around a CBP notice of action that CIT had found in November to have improperly revoked an earlier ruling letter on the classification of ICP’s white sauce (see 12112123). That had resulted in a 2,400 percent increase in duty liability for ICP (see 12121239). But while ICP in November was successful in getting a refund on one of 99 entries affected by the notice of action, CIT on Sept. 4 dismissed ICPs challenge related to another 13 entries because the company hadn’t yet paid the required $28 million in additional duties.
New Zealand will join the U.S. World Trade Organization (WTO) challenge to Indonesian restrictive measures applied to horticultural products, animals and animal products, U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman said on Aug. 30, adding that the U.S. is filing a request to “address recent modifications to Indonesia’s measures." Froman also said he welcomed New Zealand's entry into the dispute.