Law360 Quotes Devin Sikes on Court Case over Tariff Inclusion Process

Akin Gump international trade counsel Devin Sikes has been quoted in the Law360 article “Trump’s Tariff Exclusion Process Under Judicial Microscope,” which reports on the administrative battle between importers and producers over the reach of tariffs being imposed by the Trump administration. For the first time, the article says, a federal court may soon decide whether the government has been fairly refereeing those arguments.

Sikes said a new case filed last week could provide a road map to tariff relief. It will be “incredibly important,” he noted. “You see the sheer number of exclusion requests that have been filed; this has the potential to have quite a significant impact for importers seeking relief under the exclusion process.”

In the complaint, filed by a U.S. subsidiary of an Indian steel company, the plaintiff argues that the denials issued by the Commerce Department amounted to the same boilerplate language it used to deny thousands of other requests. The company will likely point to this as evidence that the government did not offer a reasoned explanation for its decision, Sikes said.

“It is absolutely correct that these decisions conform to somewhat of a boilerplate memorandum, with passages replaced with information relevant to that particular exclusion request. But there is not much more beyond that,” Sikes added. “I think the court ... will absolutely consider the thoroughness of the explanation.”