Jacob Kopnick

Southwest Airlines argued at the Court of International Trade that the U.S. violated the rules of statutory interpretation when it claimed that the airline isn't entitled to keep Customs Passenger Processing Fees paid by its customers on canceled tickets. Southwest said it "harmonizes" all the sections of the governing statute, 19 U.S.C. Section 58c, while the U.S. reads the law's collection provision in a way that isolates it from the rest of the statute (Southwest Airlines v. U.S, CIT # 22-00141).

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Exporters Shandong Dongyue Chemical Co. and Huantai Dongyue International Trade Co. filed a stipulation of dismissal regarding their claims in a case challenging the antidumping duty investigation on pentafluoroethane (R-125) from China. The case was originally filed by Shandong Dongyue, Huantai Dongyue and a third exporter, Zhejiang Sanmei Chemical Ind. Co. (see 2210270069), and the two exporters dropping their claims said the dismissal only includes their arguments and not those of Sanmei. The exporters brought the case to argue that the Commerce Department illegally valued the factors of production of the intermediate product for a refrigeration, anhydrous hydrofluoric acid, rather than valuing the refrigerant's reported factors of production (Zhejiang Sanmei Chemical Ind. Co. v. United States, CIT #22-00103).

Importer Precision Components filed a reply brief on Aug. 30 at the Court of International Trade in an antidumping scope case, telling the court that the Commerce Department characterized a "raw material as a component and thus impermissibly brought" the materials within the scope of the AD order on tapered roller bearings from China. The record clearly says "the materials at issue are not bearing components or parts of bearings and could not be used in the production of bearings absent significant physical processes performed on the raw materials" (Precision Components v. United States, CIT # 23-00218).

The Commerce Department made no changes to its final results of the 2019-20 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on solar cells from China, which was on remand at the Court of International Trade after the court sent back three elements of the review (see 2405090045). The court sent back Commerce's valuation of solar glass using Romanian import prices, valuation of air freight using Freightos data and use of partial adverse facts available against exporter Risen Energy Co. (Jinko Solar Import and Export Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00219).

Timor-Leste officially became the 166th member of the World Trade Organization on Aug. 30 following seven and half years of negotiations, the WTO announced. The nation applied for WTO membership in 2015, and a working party was established in response in 2016. The working party wrapped up negotiations in January 2024. Concurrent with its accession, Timor-Leste accepted the WTO deal on fisheries subsidies, making it the 83rd WTO member to accept the deal.

South Korean exporter Hyundai Steel Co. opposed the Commerce Department's finding on remand that the Korean government's full allocation of carbon emission permits under the Korean Emissions Trading System (K-ETS) during the 2019 review of the countervailing duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea was de facto specific. On remand, Commerce switched from a de jure to a de facto specificity finding (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00170).

California man Mohamad Yassin Alcharihi was sentenced on Aug. 29 to three months in prison for illegally importing an "ancient floor mosaic from Syria depicting the Roman demigod Hercules," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced. Alcharihi was found guilty in June 2023 after a five-day trial of one count of entry of falsely classified imports.

Luggage importer Samsonite filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade on Aug. 29 to contest CBP's alleged failure to apply Section 301 exclusions granted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to its baggage entries (Samsonite v. United States, CIT # 24-00031).

The U.S. told the Court of International Trade that its inadvertent liquidation of entries subject to an injunction from the court was the result of "human errors." Submitting information requested by the court in response to the injunction violation, the government said its controls to ensure compliance with the court's injunctions weren't followed (Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 24-00025).