The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Dec. 3-9:
Court of International Trade
The United States Court of International Trade is a federal court which has national jurisdiction over civil actions regarding the customs and international trade laws of the United States. The Court was established under Article III of the Constitution by the Customs Courts Act of 1980. The Court consists of nine judges appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is located in New York City. The Court has jurisdiction throughout the United States and has exclusive jurisdictional authority to decide civil action pertaining to international trade against the United States or entities representing the United States.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 7 ruled in favor of an importer challenging increased CBP bonding requirements, finding them unnecessary given the importer’s future import plans and detrimental to the importer’s ability to remain in business. Unusual circumstances related to the importer’s shipments from the previous year, as well as the importer’s practice of withdrawing from a bonded warehouse for consumption, mean the importer’s current continuous bond should be sufficient, CIT said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 26 - Dec. 2:
CBP and the federal government will treat Dec. 5 as a holiday in honor of former president George H.W. Bush, the agency said in a CSMS message. "Entry Summaries and Statements due on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 will be processed," it said. "CBP will accept all payment authorizations PN/QN and process them however the Finals will not print until Friday morning due to the holiday. Filers can present or pay on Thursday, December 6, 2018 without penalty." CBP will reschedule the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee that was planned for Dec.5 (see 1812030022). The Court of International Trade will also be closed on Dec. 5, it said in a notice.
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 29 declined to rule in favor of an importer facing nearly $3.5 million in penalties and unpaid duties based on allegations it fraudulently misclassified and undervalued entries of wearing apparel, sending the case to trial to decide whether the government missed the statute of limitations for customs penalty cases. Greenlight Organic denies the allegations, and also says the government filed its action more than five years after it purportedly found out about the violations. The government says it’s still within the five-year period of when it first obtained double-invoicing records from Greenlight. “More facts are needed to ascertain when the Government first had knowledge of Greenlight’s fraudulent misclassification and undervaluation activities, including when the Government began to suspect a potential double-invoicing scheme and when the Government had knowledge of an intent to defraud with respect to the misclassification of entries,” CIT said. Because more facts are necessary, CIT denied Greenlight’s motion for summary judgment and said Greenlight and the government could submit more evidence on the statute of limitations issue at trial.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 19-25:
Miller Baker, co-chair of McDermott, Will & Emery's appellate practice, will have his nomination for the Court of International Trade considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee during a Nov. 28 hearing. Baker once served as counsel to Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. Also during the hearing will be consideration of the nomination of Timothy M. Reif, a senior adviser in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, for elevation to the CIT. He previously was general counsel at USTR, and chief international trade counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee.
An importer’s challenge of the antidumping duty rate assessed on its hand trucks from China is better directed to the Commerce Department than to CBP by way of protest, the Court of International Trade said in a Nov. 23 decision. Northern Tool argued that, under Commerce’s “knowledge test” the exporter for AD duty purposes should have been the manufacturer of the hand trucks, but the trade court found CBP was only bound to determine the exporter based on entry documentation.
A substantial penalty case related to alleged evasion of antidumping duties by a major chemical importer will go to trial, after the Court of International Trade on Nov. 13 issued a mixed ruling on whether CBP proved the existence of a transshipment scheme. In the decision, publicly released Nov. 20, the trade court found evidence pointed both ways on whether Univar imported Chinese saccharin through Taiwan, and whether the importer fulfilled its reasonable care responsibilities.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 12-18: