Lawyer in Section 301 Litigation Optimistic After Separate Trade Court Ruling

Christopher Kane, partner at Simon Gluck, expressed optimism over a recent U.S. Court of International Trade ruling striking down an extension of President Donald Trump's Section 232 tariffs to aluminum and steel derivatives (see 2104050049). He believes the ruling spells good news for the massive litigation involving more than 3,700 companies challenging the expansion of the Section 301 tariffs on goods from China. Although based on a different law, Kane believes CIT's April 5 ruling demonstrates the court's willingness to hold the president to account over laws and regulations. In the case of the derivatives, the tariff expansion was eliminated because it was imposed after a 105-day period during which the president can impose Section 232 tariffs after receiving a report on the need for the duties from the Commerce Department.

“Although the 232 duties are covered by a different statutory provision, the decision this week suggests that the government is being held to strict compliance with governing laws and administrative regulations relative to the imposition of special duties, which is the heart of the BIG case and to a lesser extent, the retroactivity cases,” Kane wrote in a LinkedIn post. “If the court finds that way in the BIG case, importers win!” Kane is a litigant in the massive Section 301 case and also is the lead attorney on a separate case on the issue of retroactivity of the Section 301 exclusions, which he says will not impact the main case.