CIT Grants Voluntary Dismissal of Importer's Section 232 Exclusion Request Challenge

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 18 granted the voluntary dismissal of importer LE Commodities' challenge to the Commerce Department's rejection of its requests for exclusions from Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs (LE Commodities v. U.S., CIT # 23-00220).

The voluntary dismissal comes after the U.S. and LE Commodities settled a separate CIT action on the company's denied exclusion requests for its tubing entries (see 2410030019). Per that settlement, CBP will reliquidate seven of LE Commodities' sanitary tubing entries without the Section 232 duties, adding that any Section 232 duties assessed on another 13 of the importer's entries are final.

LE Commodities filed the present case to challenge the rejection of one of its exclusion requests, which covered steel bar imports. The company said it should have received exclusions from the Section 232 tariffs, arguing that the only reasonable conclusion from the evidence is that the company can't obtain its imports in the U.S. market in a sufficient quantity or quality. The U.S. asked for a voluntary remand in both cases to reconsider the exclusion requests (see 2405100067).