Jacob Kopnick

International conglomerate Honeywell filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade to secure its preferred customs classification of its radial and chordal brake segments imports. After they're imported, the brake segments are manufactured into brake discs for airplanes (Honeywell International Inc. v. U.S., CIT #17-00256).

Importer Incase Design filed two complaints at the Court of International Trade in a bid to secure its preferred classification of its car Apple cellphone chargers. CBP liquidated the chargers under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8504.40.95, which provides for “[e]lectrical transformers, static converters (for example, rectifiers) and inductors; parts thereof: Static converters: Other,” dutiable at 1.5%. Incase argues that the proper HTS home for the car chargers is 8504.40.85, which provides for “[e]lectrical transformers, static converters (for example, rectifiers) and inductors; parts thereof: Static converters: For telecommunication apparatus,” free of duty (Incase Design Corp. v. U.S., CIT #16-00235, #17-00046).

The Commerce Department reverted to its initial decision in an antidumping duty investigation to adjust a Turkish pipe exporter's post-sale price by only one-third of a late delivery penalty in Nov. 2 remand results filed at the Court of International Trade. Submitting the remand following a mandate from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversing a CIT opinion, Commerce also dropped its particular market situation adjustment to the respondent Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi ve Ticaret's costs for the sales-below-cost test (Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. v. U.S., CIT Consol. #19-00056).

Antidumping review respondent Hyundai Steel Co. "shifted its narrative" when answering a supplemental questionnaire from the Commerce Department on remand from the Court of International Trade, U.S. Steel argued in comments on the remand results. Arguing against Commerce's decision to drop its adverse facts available finding over a discrepancy between two product codes, U.S. Steel argued that Commerce mistook the court's decision as "somehow requiring Commerce to blind itself to Hyundai's troubling history of failing to cooperate to the best of its ability."

Manufacturer and distributor Irwin Industrial Tool filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade seeking to secure a particular customs classification for its locking pliers in line with prior CIT rulings on the issue. The locking pliers have two handles with two opposing metal jaws with metal teeth connected by a joint or pivot that also includes a spring mechanism (Irwin Industrial Tool Company v. U.S., CIT #15-00107).

Ball bearings importer Wermex filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade Oct. 29, contesting CBP's reliquidation of its entries after being erroneously covered by injunctions, when the entries should have been deemed liquidated or been liquidated in line with the final results of the relevant AD review.

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

CBP properly found that pencil importer Royal Brush Manufacturing evaded antidumping duties on cased pencils from China, the Court of International Trade held in an Oct. 29 opinion. Chief Judge Mark Barnett upheld CBP's determination after initially remanding the case for not having provided adequate public summaries of business confidential information. Finding that on remand, CBP cleared this hurdle and that the summaries did not violate Royal Brush's due process rights, Barnett upheld the evasion finding.

The Commerce Department again dropped its particular market situation adjustment to the sales-below-cost test in an antidumping review, despite continuing to find that a PMS existed during the review. Dropping the adjustment in Oct. 29 remand results at the Court of International Trade, Commerce said it fulfilled the terms of its voluntary remand request in the case, explaining that the court ruled in other cases that the agency is not allowed to make such an adjustment when finding normal value (NEXTEEL Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #20-03868).

The Court of International Trade ordered an in-person oral argument to take place on Nov. 4 to settle a matter in which the Department of Justice alleged that the plaintiff failed to obtain its consent before filing for a statutory injunction against the liquidation of its entries. In a brief on the injunction motion, DOJ said that counsel for Cheng Shin Rubber -- led by Jeffrey Winton of Winton & Chapman -- completely misrepresented its position, declaring that it had the government's consent for the injunction, when it didn't (see 2110250052).