Bernd Janzen and Spencer Griffith Quoted in Inside U.S. Trade on Shutdown’s Impact on Trade Work

Inside U.S. Trade has quoted Bernd Janzen and Spencer Griffith, partners in Akin Gump’s international trade practice, in the article “Tariff exclusions, remedy cases, new market opportunities hit by shutdown.” With the partial government shutdown approaching the four-week mark, the article reports that a variety of trade-related work is either being delayed or not being done at all.

At the Commerce Department, for example, employees at the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Trade Administration (ITA) are no longer processing product exclusion requests for Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, according to Janzen.

“I am hearing from clients who are frustrated at the fact that they’re not able to get answers on applications that they filed before the shutdown and for companies that are paying 232 tariffs that’s a considerable burden that they have to carry for a longer period before they get a decision,” he said. “So I think this is a good example of delay transferring into cost.”

Griffith pointed out that the ITA and the International Trade Commission have put preliminary and final decisions on hold for ongoing cases. In addition, questionnaires issued to supplement the record are not being issued and hearings are not being scheduled. Appeals are also affected, he said, because, even while the Court of International Trade (CIT) is open, the Justice Department is requesting extensions in all CIT appeals in the Commerce Department’s trade remedy cases. The ITC, which has stopped all operations, handles its own appeals.

Janzen and Griffith both pointed out that the Commerce Department and the ITC have historically extended deadlines in trade remedy cases by as many days as the government has shut down.