By John H. Kester President Trump on June 3 issued an Executive Order providing for substantial changes to Customs law relevant to importers, including narrowing importer eligibility regulations and expanding import disclosure and certification requirements, with a particular focus and effect on foreign importers of record (“IORs”). The Order provides for the following requirements, ostensibly […]
By John H. Kester Proceedings before the Court of International Trade (“CIT”) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) in June leave no doubt that the government is continuing to fight blanket refund of tariffs unlawfully imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”). These efforts include the government’s […]
Government Announces Plans to Appeal Tariff Refund Order By John H. Kester In a Motion filed in V.O.S. Selections in the Court of International Trade (“CIT”) on Friday, May 29th, the government announced its intent to appeal the Court’s prior injunction requiring that Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) reliquidate finally liquidated entries removing tariffs unlawfully imposed […]
Importers Begin Receiving CAPE Refund Payments; CIT Says Section 122 Tariffs Illegal By John H. Kester Importers who paid tariffs illegally based in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) and whose entries were eligible for the first phase of Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP’s”) Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (“CAPE”) tool have begun […]
Refund Uncertainty Persists as IEEPA Tariff Refund Case is Dismissed By John H. Kester The Court of International Trade (“CIT”) on Wednesday, April 8, dismissed Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States, et al., the case through which the CIT purported to develop a refund process for importers who paid billions of dollars in tariffs unlawfully […]
The Iran Conflict Update: Global Shipping, Sanctions, and Governmental Relief By Hannah F. Atkinson Continued monitoring of the evolving conflict in the Middle East remains imperative for businesses. Since last week and our previous article, the scale of disruption has increased, especially for those in the supply chain, as three cargo ships were hit as […]
Judge Orders CBP to Report its Progress to Developing Refund Process by Thursday By John H. Kester The Court of International Trade (“CIT”) on Friday ordered that the government file a report on the progress Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) has made toward developing a refund process for IEEPA duties, with interest, by 2PM EDT […]
Federal Circuit Mandates Court of International Trade Take Action on Tariff Case By John H. Kester The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump on Monday issued a mandate returning the case to the Court of International Trade to take further action. The order denied a court filing […]
Carriers Impose Surcharges as Iran Conflict Disrupts Shipping Routes By Oliver M. Krischik and John H. Kester Over the course of the weekend, the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran-related targets, and Iran responded by striking against U.S.- and Israel-related targets in the region. The armed conflict and ongoing military actions have […]
District Court Rules Disclosures to AI Tool are Not Privileged or Confidential By Hannah F. Atkinson & John H. Kester More and more businesses and individuals are turning to public artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools like ChatGPT and Claude for analysis and strategic advice. However, reliance on these useful tools is not without risks—particularly when potentially […]