Friederike Gorgens, previously with Arent Fox, joined Greenberg Traurig as of counsel in the firm's international trade practice. At Arent Fox, Gorgens was listed as one of the litigators in the case challenging lists 3 and 4A of the Section 301 China tariffs. Arent Fox is one of the largest law firms involved in the litigation, representing more than 50 of the lawsuits against the tariffs.
Section 301 (too broad)
Thompson Hine trade attorney Dan Ujczo expects the only activity on trade in the first eight months of Joe Biden's presidency will be on issues either so small that they don't make a splash -- such as the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program -- or on issues that have an immediate need for action.
The American Apparel and Footwear Association told President Joe Biden that the Section 301 exclusion that covers cloth masks will be expired on April 1, and that it needs to be extended past then, since the COVID-19 pandemic will not be over. They said in a news release that without that exclusion, the tariff rate on personal protective equipment will double.
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Feb. 16-19 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Some major publishing houses, along with several other smaller publishers, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade challenging the legality of List 4A of the Section 301 tariffs on China goods. In a Feb. 17 filing, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, with others, said the 10% tariff extension to more than $120 billion in List 4A goods violated the Administrative Procedure Act -- a legal theory used by more than 3,500 other companies in similar cases against the tariffs. Also party to the suit are Bloomsbury Publishing, HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Holtzbrinck Publishers, Storey Publishing, Teacher Created Materials, The Experiment, Timber Press and Workman Publishing.
Katharine Tai, President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. trade representative, enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress through her work as a USMCA negotiator when she was House Ways and Means Committee chief trade counsel, Nicole Bivens Collinson, Sandler Travis president-international trade and government relations, told a Sports & Fitness Industry Association webinar Feb. 23. Tai’s Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing is set for 10 a.m. Feb. 25, and she’s going to be asked a lot of questions about the Biden administration’s posture toward the Section 301 tariffs on China, Collinson said. If all goes as well as expected with her confirmation process, Tai could be sworn in as USTR as soon as March 8, she said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Feb. 15-21:
The processing operations in China on frozen roasted eel from the U.S. or Europe are close enough to filleting to result in a substantial transformation, CBP said in a Dec. 16 ruling. Law firm Grunfeld Desiderio asked CBP on behalf of American Eel Depot for a further review of protest after multiple entries of the eels were entered as products of China and subject to Section 301 duties. The company argued that the eels should instead be of U.S. or European origin.
Even though a Section 301 investigation on Vietnamese currency manipulation found there was cause to believe the practice is burdening U.S. business (see 2101150046), Crowell & Moring lawyer Michael Bowen said the firm does not assign much additional risk to imports from Vietnam based on its currency practices. “Let’s call it ‘low-medium’ for now,” Bowen said in an email following up on a Feb. 17 Crowell & Moring webinar (see 2102170038). He said not only did the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative choose not to impose any tariffs in January at the time of its finding, it also “failed to signal any imminent measures in its notice.” Bowen also noted that the first time Commerce used currency undervaluation as a countervailable subsidy, on passenger tires, it was an average of 1.4% across the two companies under review. This “showed this may be more bark than bite for importers.”
Many expect trade policy under the Biden administration to be more worker-focused than consumer-focused, but many specifics remain undecided. “The jury is still out on what that pro-worker trade policy will look like in practice,” said Joshua Boswell, a lawyer at Crowell & Moring. Boswell spoke to a webinar audience Feb. 17 on the 2021 trade outlook and said such predictions don't tell you much about tariffs, free trade negotiations or trade remedies in and of themselves.