Court of International Trade

Democratic attorneys general challenging President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs raised a fresh defense of their lawsuit on Tuesday, a day before judges on the Court of International Trade were set to hear arguments on states’ claims that the duties go far beyond what IEEPA authorizes. The 12 AGs representing plaintiff states in Oregon, et al., v. Trump filed a new brief on May 20 , pushing back on the Justice Department’s arguments that IEEPA gives the president...

A federal district judge in Florida is sending a suit over President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs to the Court of International Trade, agreeing with DOJ that CIT has jurisdiction because the emergencies law “provid[es] for . . . tariffs” -- an early win for the administration in its wide-ranging fight over the duties’ legality. The May 20 order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida marks the first time a federal judge has...

The Trump administration is pointing to the Court of International Trade’s quick movement on litigation over International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs as a reason to transfer challenges filed elsewhere to the trade court as well, warning that allowing parallel suits to proceed in regional courts will “effectively destroy” CIT’s exclusive jurisdiction over trade law. The Justice Department filed new briefs this week in two pending IEEPA cases it is seeking to transfer from region-specific district courts to CIT, highlighting...

The Justice Department is arguing that few of the states suing over International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs have shown the direct “harm” needed to justify a court order blocking collection of the duties, while also seeking to shore up its broader legal defense of the policy ahead of a May 21 hearing in the Court of International Trade. “Plaintiffs allege that they are suffering ‘actual, ongoing, and imminent economic harm.’ But, critically, only some plaintiff states say that any...

The Commerce Department is seeking public input on how it determines when dumping is targeted at certain companies or regions or over specific periods of time -- instances in which it uses its controversial “zeroing” methodology. Zeroing, the practice of disregarding negative dumping margins when constructing an overall dumping rate, has long been a source of contention between the U.S. and other members of the World Trade Organization -- and adverse rulings at the WTO on how the U.S. uses...

A lawyer representing plaintiffs in one of the many parallel lawsuits challenging President Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs says he expects the cases to move quickly through lower courts, teeing up the possibility of contradictory rulings on whether the duties are lawful or even which court has the power to make that decision. “We don't know enough yet about the different schedules,” but dueling court decisions are “certainly possible,” Andrew Morris, senior litigation...

California and a coalition of private companies ramped up their legal attacks on President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs in the hours after the Court of International Trade held its first hearing in one of many pending IEEPA challenges, as both sought to ensure that judges will consider their claims alongside those the CIT has already started to review. Late on May 13, both the California state government and a coalition represented by the free-market law firm Pacific...

Judges on the Court of International Trade spent much of a Tuesday hearing on President Trump’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs wrestling with a Nixon-era precedent that the Justice Department says requires CIT to uphold the duties, questioning how closely the current program -- and IEEPA itself -- match the policy in the earlier case. A three-judge CIT panel spent more than two hours on May 13 pressing attorneys from both sides of the IEEPA litigation on many aspects...

President Trump’s barrage of new tariffs has “seriously and irreparably disrupted” what would otherwise be routine government budgeting and procurement decisions, Democratic attorneys general from 12 states are arguing at the Court of International Trade, urging it to quickly block the implementation of the duties nationwide ahead of an initial hearing on their legality. “The States’ agencies and universities cannot properly set their budgets if they lack reasonable certainty as to how much goods and materials will cost over the...