Joseph Barloon was confirmed to be the ambassador to the World Trade Organization in a 51-47 Senate vote Oct. 7. He was one of 108 nominees approved in that single vote. Barloon was first nominated in February. Barloon served as general counsel to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in 2019 and 2020. He had previously been nominated for the Court of International Trade, but since the nomination was 17 days before Trump left office, the nomination did not proceed.
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).
CBP has released its Oct. 1 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 40), which includes the following ruling action:
The Commerce Department released its shutdown contingency plan on Sept. 29, which stated that only 60 out of 1,272 International Trade Association employees are excepted from furlough as "most services and activities" of the agency will cease, though the Bureau of Industry and Security's work on Section 232 investigations will continue.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 22-28:
The U.S. opened a customs penalty suit last week against wire garment hanger importer LGA Trading and its director, Galo Goya, at the Court of International Trade, seeking over $3.1 million as a penalty for negligence and over $1.9 million in unpaid duties (United States v. LGA Trading, CIT # 25-00214).
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of an antidumping duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (A-570-970) based on the final decision in a Court of International Trade case challenging those final results.
CBP has released its Sept. 24 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 39), which includes the following ruling action:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 25 upheld the Lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs. CAFC Judges Todd Hughes and Alan Lourie, along with Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas, who was sitting by designation, said the tariffs were a valid exercise of the government's authority under Section 307(a)(1)(C), which lets the U.S. Trade Representative "modify or terminate any action" taken under Section 301, where such action is "no longer appropriate."