Jacob Kopnick

Aluminum extrusion importer Hialeah Aluminum Supply on April 29 filed a Court of International Trade complaint challenging an Enforce and Protect Act final affirmative determination. Hialeah argues that CBP's process in the investigation violated its Fifth Amendment due process rights and violated the agency's own regulations (Hialeah Aluminum Supply, Inc. v. United States, #21-00207).

At the same time that trade-related False Claims Act cases cover an increasing number of types of allegations against importers and exporters, the rewards doled out to whistleblowers seems to be on the rise, Sidley Austin said in an April 29 analysis. Discussing increasing trade exposure in FCA cases in part two of a series on the practice (see 2104210028), Sidley said there is a trend of increased payout size. "These factors foreshadow an increase in trade-related FCA actions in the near future,” the firm said.

The Court of International Trade granted the Justice Department's request for a voluntary remand in the antidumping duty investigation on polyethylene terephthalate sheet from Oman, in an April 30 order. OCTAL says it was not given the chance to comment during the investigation on a Commerce determination that the exporter was affiliated with one of its customers. OCTAL also said the trade court should give Commerce greater than 90 days for the remand in order to reopen the record in the investigation to account for new information. DOJ agreed that the case should be remanded, but not to an extension of the 90-day deadline to reopen the record. CIT's order says the remand must be filed within 90 days.

Following a court-ordered remand to address due process concerns in an Enforce and Protect Act case, CBP has failed again to provide Royal Brush Manufacturing “notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” the importer argued in an April 26 response to CBP's remand redetermination. Despite some changes to comply with the Court of International Trade decision that found fault with CBP's finding that Royal Brush evaded antidumping duties on cased pencils from China by way of transshipment through the Philippines, Royal Brush continued to take issue with CBP's public summaries of key case information and the agency's failure to properly notify the company when new factual information surfaced via a verification report.

Court of International Trade Chief Judge Mark Barnett suggested during an April 26 status conference that an automatic stay could be in order for all cases challenging Lists 3 and 4A of the Section 301 tariffs that are unassigned to the three-judge panel. The government defense and the 15-member steering committee representing the plaintiffs did not object. Under Barnett's suggested order, all new cases without assignment to the panel would automatically be stayed and would follow comparable procedures to other cases under the HMTX Industries and Jasco Products test case to lift the stay.

Aluminum extrusion importer Global Aluminum Distributor filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Enforce and Protect A investigations, becoming the latest to challenge the process for countering antidumping duty evasion. In an April 28 complaint, Global Aluminum said CBP's EAPA process violated procedural requirements and the importer's constitutional rights related to due process and excessive fines, and that CBP is unfairly subjecting a company to two EAPA investigations for the same conduct and entries. Separate from other EAPA complaints, Global Aluminum claims that the duties assessed via the evasion finding constitutes a violation of the Eight Amendment for excessive fines.

Porsche Motorsports North America filed a motion for summary judgment in the Court of International Trade, hoping to sway the court that automobile repair tools and parts the company exported to Canada then brought back into the U.S. should return duty free. In the April 26 filing, Porsche argued for classification under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9801.00.85 -- the subheading granting duty-free access to goods returning to the states after having been exported for use temporarily abroad -- claiming the parts are “tools of the trade” of car racing.

Steel importer Norca Industrial Company filed a challenge to an affirmative Enforce and Protect Act determination, claiming that CBP did not have a legal basis to initiate the investigation and violated its due process rights. In an April 27 complaint in the Court of International Trade, Norca made six claims against its EAPA investigation, including on the constitutionality of the process and whether CBP unfairly made adverse inferences against the company to determine that evasion took place (Norca Industrial Company LLC v. U.S., CIT # 21-00192).

The Department of Justice on April 23 filed a motion to dismiss Root Sciences' Court of International Trade challenge of CBP's seizure of a shipment of a cannabis crude extract recovery machine. DOJ says that CIT lacks the jurisdiction to adjudicate challenges to CBP's seizure of goods, and the relevant federal district court is the proper venue to challenge seizures.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 26 upheld a recent lower court ruling that found an active pharmaceutical ingredient imported by Janssen Ortho eligible for duty-free treatment. In line with a February 2020 Court of International Trade decision, the Federal Circuit found darunavir ethanolate, the active ingredient in a Janssen HIV medication, is encompassed by a listing in the tariff schedule's Pharmaceutical Appendix for darunavir.