Devin Sikes Quoted in Law360 from Blog Post on Federal Circuit’s Sunpreme Case
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Law360 has quoted from an AG Trade Law blog post by Akin Gump international trade counsel Devin Sikes, which discusses one of the cases that the publication reviews in the article “Top 5 Trade Rulings Of 2020: Year In Review.”
In Sunpreme Inc. v. U.S., Law360 notes, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an en banc opinion in January granting U.S. border authorities the power to make way for initial tariffs on imports even before they are found to be covered by a duty order, when that order is “ambiguous.”
The underlying case, Law360 says, involved imports of solar panels, but the decision was expected to have broad implications for all importers who may be on the hook for duties at an earlier stage of the entry process. Sikes said the ruling will likely “embolden Customs to enhance its trade remedy enforcement” at the border.
“As a consequence of Sunpreme,” Sikes wrote, “importers of goods not clearly covered by the scope of an anti-dumping or countervailing duty proceeding should be prepared for the possibility that Customs will order the suspension of liquidation and posting of cash deposits, even in the absence of a clarifying Commerce scope ruling.”
To read the original blog post, please click here.
