The U.S. opposed two importers' bid to have the Supreme Court hear their challenge to the president's ability to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has a chance to hear the case. The government argued that the high court shouldn't step in before either the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has had a chance to address the claims against the IEEPA tariffs, particularly since both courts are hearing the appeals on very expedited timelines (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).
The U.S. filed a complaint on July 15 in a case against importer Global Office Furniture and its owner Malcom Smith for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying duties on imported office chairs, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina announced. The case was originally filed in March 2020 by Sharon Joyce, former office manager for Global Office Furniture (United States v. Global Office Furniture, D.S.C. # 2:20-01223).
The U.S. opened a customs penalty suit against surety company XL Specialty Insurance on July 17, seeking over $3.6 million in unpaid duties and interested owed on customs bonds. The government said XL "materially breached the terms of the subject bonds" by refusing to pay following CBP's demand for payment (United States v. XL Specialty Insurance, CIT # 25-00154).
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website July 16, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.
CBP has released its July 16 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 59, No. 29). While it contains no ruling notices, it includes three Court of International Trade slip opinions.
Trade restrictions in pending Section 232 investigations for copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals, heavy-duty trucks, commercial aircraft and engines, polysilicon and drones are a foregone conclusion, but "exactly what those trade measures will look like" has not been decided, Steptoe's Jeff Weiss said during a firm webinar.
The US-China Business Council released its annual member survey, which shows almost all U.S. companies operating in China are concerned about the impact of tariffs on their business. Tariffs jumped from the eighth-highest concern in last year's survey to number two in this year's, with the highest being U.S.-China relations.
Trade observers are waiting for more information about whether Aug. 1 tariffs on Canada and Mexico will include goods that currently qualify for duty-free treatment under USMCA, according to comments by Flexport officials during a July 16 webinar.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the July 16 Federal Register on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):