The Court of International Trade has ruled in CBB Group, Inc., v. U.S., that its consideration of cases involving "deemed exclusions" and its ability to order relief, if warranted, is not precluded by CBP's issuance of a Seizure Notice (as it was issued after the case was brought to court) or by the prospect that adjudication of claims will involve the application of copyright law.
Court of International Trade
The United States Court of International Trade is a federal court which has national jurisdiction over civil actions regarding the customs and international trade laws of the United States. The Court was established under Article III of the Constitution by the Customs Courts Act of 1980. The Court consists of nine judges appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is located in New York City. The Court has jurisdiction throughout the United States and has exclusive jurisdictional authority to decide civil action pertaining to international trade against the United States or entities representing the United States.
Italian producer/exporter Schaeffler Italia S.R.L. (with Schaeffler Group USA Inc.) failed at the Court of International Trade in an attempt to overturn the final results of the May 2007 -- April 2008 AD administrative review of ball bearings from Italy, in which the International Trade Administration assigned it a 15.10% AD duty rate based solely on the margin results of SKF Industrie S.p.A./Somecat S.p.A, the only other respondent in the review.
The Court of International Trade ruled in CBB Group, Inc. v. U.S. that U.S. Customs and Border Protection cannot take action to dispose of imports it found to be piratical copies that infringe a registered copyright while the case is pending, as its Seizure Notice was issued after the importer’s case was brought and the court’s jurisdiction had attached. The importer is challenging CBP’s alleged exclusion of its plush toys from entry and CBP’s deemed denial of its protest of that event.
The Court of International Trade has ruled1 that U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not err in denying Shell's 1997 protests seeking drawback of Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) and Environmental Tax (ET) payments associated with certain petroleum products that it imported and substitute petroleum derivatives it exported in 1993 and 1994. The CIT agreed with CBP that Shell is not entitled to drawback as its protests were untimely.
In the antidumping duty administrative review of certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India for the period December 2005 through November 2006, the International Trade Administration granted an adjustment to U.S. price to Indian producer Essar Steel Limited for import duties which the company claimed were waived under an Indian Government program to encourage exports. However, U.S. producers United States Steel Corporation and Nucor Corporation argued to the Court of International Trade that Essar had failed to prove that it had qualified for the rebate. Conceding it had made erroneous assumptions, the ITA requested a voluntary remand to reconsider the duty drawback adjustment, and the CIT issued remand instructions accordingly. (Slip Op 11-66, dated 06/14/11)
The following are details of a June 16, 2011 decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (here) that overturned a lower court ruling and arguments by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the classification of certain “CamelBak” back-mounted packs. CAFC agreed with Camelbak that its packs are made up of two different components and are "composite goods" that should be classified by the essential character test, because the two applicable subheadings refer to only part of the subject articles.
The International Trade Administration has announced that it is revising the interim1 methodology it has been using to value the cost of labor in non-market economy (NME) countries in antidumping proceedings to use a single surrogate-country approach based on different labor cost data.
The Court of International Trade has ruled in U.S. v. Trek Leather Inc., and Harish Shadadpuri that an importer of record along with its sole shareholder committed gross negligence by consistently failing to include the cost of fabric assists in the price actually paid or payable in their entry documents for men's suits imported into the U.S. The defendants were also found liable for unpaid customs duties and civil penalties, plus interest.
On June 16, 2011, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overruled the lower court and agreed with CamelBak Products LLC that its back-mounted packs are made up of two different components (a hydration component and a storage component), and are "composite goods" that should be classified by the essential character test, because the two applicable subheadings refer to only part of the subject articles. CBP had argued, and the lower court had affirmed, that the items were not "composite goods" and that a single tariff provision applied to the articles in their entirety.
For the antidumping duty administrative review of certain pasta from Italy for the period July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007, the Court of International Trade previously granted a request from the International Trade Administration for a voluntary remand to reconsider whether accounting expenses of Italian producer Pasta Zara SpA were direct or indirect expenses. The court also ordered the ITA to reconsider whether all home market sales, whether to independent retailers or large discount chains, were in fact at a single level of trade, as the ITA claimed.