Grunfeld Desiderio counseled clients in the Section 301 litigation to consider a “sliding scale” of options on filing timely complaints within the two-year statute of limitations window that qualifies importers to recover duties paid if the suits are successful, partner Ned Marshak said in an Oct. 19 interview. The firm filed more than 800 of the nearly 3,600 complaints inundating the Court of International Trade. Its Sept. 16 complaint on behalf of YC Rubber was the first to follow Akin Gump's suit for lead plaintiff HMTX Industries.

A potential expansion of CBP authority under the Enforce and Protect Act that would apply to malfeasance beyond the evasion of antidumping or countervailing duties will be part of the agency's 21st Century Customs Framework discussion, CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner for International Trade Brenda Smith said during an Oct. 21 conference call with reporters. Smith last year mentioned the possibility of an expanded authority (see 1907240025). Currently, CBP uses the EAPA processes only to investigate AD/CV duty evasion.

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 13-16 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that the trade facilitation agreement that the U.S. and Brazil signed Oct. 19 is very similar to the USMCA trade facilitation chapter, and that traders should expect more incremental progress in coming months. “There’s a lot more that needs to be done,” Lighthizer said during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce program Oct. 20. “We have ongoing negotiations on ethanol. Brazilians like to talk about sugar. There’s a variety of things in the agriculture area.”

Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu of the U.S. Court of International Trade should “automatically stay” all but the lead HMTX Industries-Jasco Products complaint in the Section 301 litigation and designate HMTX-Jasco as the “test case,” the Department of Justice said in an Oct. 19 motion to adopt case management procedures. All the nearly 3,600 complaints inundating the CIT seek to vacate the lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings and get the duties refunded. The roster of complaints attached to DOJ’s motion takes up 187 pages.

A steel importer will receive refunds of Section 232 tariffs under a settlement that resolves its legal challenge of denied exclusion requests. Approved Oct. 15 by the Court of International Trade, the settlement directs CBP to reliquidate some entries covered by exclusions Borusan Mannesman Pipe U.S. had alleged were improperly denied by the Commerce Department. The government did not admit liability under the settlement.

Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, told a business audience that his country and the U.S. have completed a trade facilitation agreement, an agreement on best regulatory practices, and an anti-corruption agreement. He said these treaties would “slash red tape and bring about even more growth to our bilateral trade with beneficial effects to the flow of investments as well.”

CBP issued a forced labor finding on imports of stevia from China, it said in a notice released Oct. 19. It's the first time a finding has been issued since 1996, according to a list of CBP actions. The forced labor finding applies to “stevia extracts and derivatives, mined, produced, or manufactured” in China by the Inner Mongolia Hengzheng Group Baoanzhao Agriculture, Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., CBP said. The finding follows a withhold release order issued in 2016 on Baoanzhao (see 1605310019) that resulted in the first CBP penalty for forced labor (see 2008140016). CBP has ratcheted up its use of authorities this year under provisions to stop goods made with forced labor (see 2009140040).

There is some industry concern that a proposal to end the de minimis exemption to Section 301 goods isn't considered “economically significant,” an executive following the issue said. CBP submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule titled “Excepting Merchandise Subject to Section 301 Duties from the Customs De Minimis Exemption,” according to OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website (see 2009040026).

An importer’s handwritten corrections on a 1520(d) post-importation claim for U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) treatments were sufficient, and the Apparel, Footwear & Textiles Center of Excellence and Expertise should not have denied the claim and required submission of a new certificate of origin, CBP headquarters said in a ruling released in early October.