U.S. Auto Parts seeks a court order barring CBP from imposing “baseless and excessive” single entry bond requirements on its shipments for purported intellectual property rights violations, it said in a complaint filed April 2. CBP Norfolk is requiring a bond of three times entered value on all of the importer’s entries due to concerns that U.S. Auto Parts is importing aftermarket replacement auto grilles that infringe trademarks held by the car manufacturers. But the allegedly infringing parts only make up a small portion of its overall imports, and in any case should not be considered counterfeit, U.S. Auto Parts said.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 26 - April 1:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 26-30 in case they were missed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 2 affirmed a lower court ruling that dinnerware decorated with Christmas or Thanksgiving themes are not classifiable in a special duty-free subheading for articles used in religious or cultural rituals. Though it faulted the Court of International Trade’s narrow interpretation of what constitutes a ritual, it still found WWRD’s Christmas and Thanksgiving dinnerware should not be classified alongside items with more specific purposes like menorahs and communion cups.
Instructions not to assess antidumping duties on “unliquidated” entries also apply to entries that have been liquidated but not finalized because they are still protestable, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a March 30 decision. Overturning a Court of International Trade ruling from 2016 (see 1610250042), the Federal Circuit held that the Commerce Department’s revocation of antidumping duties on German steel may apply to several of ThyssenKrupp’s entries that had already been liquidated by the time the revocation was announced.
The Court of International Trade will hear arguments March 29 on whether it should issue a temporary block of recently imposed Section 232 steel tariffs as they apply to a Miami-based importer. Severstal Export Miami, a subsidiary of the Russian steel manufacturer PAO Severstal, argues that the tariffs are unconstitutional because they weren’t actually meant to address national security -- a fact purportedly belied by President Donald Trump’s own tweets -- and unenforceable for failure to provide fair notice to companies with shipments already on the water.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of March 19-25:
CBP must allow for a face-to-face meeting with importers charged with Section 1592 violations before imposing penalties, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued March 26. Finding in favor of a textile importer contesting more than $6 million in penalties and unpaid duties, CIT held that short phone calls between CBP and the importer’s representative did not meet 19 USC 1592’s requirement for an oral hearing.
Court of International Trade Senior Judge Nicholas Tsoucalas died on March 22. Tsoucalas, 91, served in the Navy during World War II and the Korean War and subsequently entered legal practice. His appointment to be a criminal court judge for the City of New York in 1968 began his 50-year career as a judge. President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the Court of International Trade in 1986. He retired from the court and assumed senior status in 2016.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 20 upheld a lower court ruling finding screws imported by GRK Canada are classifiable as self-tapping screws rather than as wood screws. Despite an earlier ruling finding an article’s use should be considered in “eo nomine” provisions of the tariff schedule that define an object by name (see 1412100060), the Federal Circuit held that the government went too far in elevating the role of use when arguing screws that may be screwed into wood are classifiable as wood screws.