The International Trade Commission Trial Lawyers Association filed its own amicus curiae brief Oct. 8 also supporting ITC in its current appeal of Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden’s refusal to redact a public opinion the agency worries could contain business proprietary information (see 2312200070). Its brief follows another submitted by the Customs and International Trade Bar Association a day prior (see 2410080055) (CVB v. United States, CIT # 21-00288) (CVB, Inc. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1504).

The U.S. on Oct 8, joined by defendant-intervenors Oct. 9, pushed back against an aluminum importer’s claim that the Commerce Department had wrongly looked at only two of five factors in a circumvention investigation to determine a product’s country of origin -- even finding the other three factors actually weighed against its ruling (Hanon Systems Alabama Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 24-00013).

Importer Retractable Technologies on Oct. 8 asked the Court of International Trade to quash the government's motion seeking corporate testimony from the company in Retractable's suit on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 100% Section 301 tariff hike on needles and syringes. Retractable said an upcoming evidentiary hearing before the trade court will give the government the information it seeks and that reasonable time wasn't allowed for the company to respond to the subpoena (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 8 granted importer HH Associates US' voluntary dismissal of its customs case. The importer brought the suit in September 2023 to contest CBP's classification of its glassware imports under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 7013.37.2090, dutiable at 22.5%. HH Associates said the goods should receive duty-free treatment under the same subheading. Counsel for the importer didn't respond to a request for comment (HH Associates US v. United States, CIT # 23-00200).

The U.S. brought a negligence case against a California-based solar cell importer Oct. 8 seeking $776,250.51 in unpaid duties and damages (U.S. v. Paul Bakhoum, CIT # 24-00188).

An importer of aluminum extrusions from China -- one of those found by the Court of International Trade in June to have not evaded antidumping and countervailing duties (see 2407100048) -- asked the trade court to award it attorney’s fees, saying that, as a result of the litigation, it had gone out of business (H&E Home v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00337).

The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The U.S. swapped its principal counsel in a scope case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the antidumping duty order on butt-weld pipe fittings from China. Judges Timothy Dyk, Haldane Mayer and Jimmie Reyna granted the government's bid to replace senior trial counsel Meen Geu Oh with DOJ trial attorney Anne Delmare. Oh recently argued the case before the appellate court during oral argument held in April (see 2404050066) (Vandewater International v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1093).

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 7 set a 14-day deadline for the U.S. to file for a voluntary remand in an Enforce and Protect Act case originally brought by exporter Kingtom Aluminio. The parties in a recent joint status report told the court to lift the stay on the case and that the government intends to file a voluntary remand motion (Kingtom Aluminio v. United States, CIT Consol. #22-00072).

Plaintiffs in a case regarding the countervailability of three debt-to-equity swaps filed a brief Oct. 7 in support of the Commerce Department’s reluctant reversal on remand (see 2407030073). The department found those swaps weren't countervailable, because it hadn't countervailed them in three prior reviews either (KG Dongbu Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00047).