DOJ to File First Defenses in Massive Section 301 Litigation by March 12

The U.S. Court of International Trade gave DOJ a March 12 deadline for filing a “master answer” of its defenses “in law or fact” to the roughly 3,500 complaints filed since September to get the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods vacated and the duties refunded, said a procedural order (in Pacer) signed Wednesday by the three-judge panel assigned Friday to handle the massive litigation (see 2102050038). DOJ’s answer on behalf of all the defendants shouldn't attempt to “cross-reference” specific paragraphs in the various complaints, but “in a ‘generic’ manner admit or deny (including denials based on lack of information and belief) the allegations typically included in claims made against them as well as make such additional allegations as are appropriate to their defenses,” said the order. It would be DOJ’s first opportunity to defend the allegations in virtually all the complaints that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative under the Trump administration overstepped its Section 301 authority when it imposed the retaliatory Lists 3 and 4A tariffs against the Chinese and violated the Administrative Procedure Act by conducting tariff rulemakings that lacked transparency. Judges Mark Barnett, Claire Kelly and Jennifer Choe-Groves devised a “master case” procedure “to reduce the time and expense of duplicate filings of documents,” said the order. When DOJ files its answer in the new master case docket 21-cv00052-3JP, the document “will constitute an answer” in each Section 301 case already filed and yet to be filed in the future, except when DOJ later files “a separate answer in an individual case,” it said. Lawyers in the early going of the Section 301 litigation complained DOJ broke court rules when it filed procedural papers only in the docket of the first-filed HMTX Industries/Jasco Products case, and not in each of the dockets of the thousands of cases that followed. When pleadings, motions and other relevant documents are docketed in the master case, it will be as if they have been docketed in all the individual cases, said the order. Documents germane only to a specific case would still be filed in the individual case's docket, it said.