Law360 Publishes Article “CIT Tells Commerce To Revisit Denied Steel Tariff Exemptions”

January 2023—Law360 reported on a recent decision from the Court of International Trade in favor of Chaffetz Lindsey’s client, NLMK Pennsylvania LLC, holding that the Commerce Department violated the Administrative Procedure Act in denying the steel producer exemptions from Section 232 national security tariffs for its imports of semi-finished steel slab.  In holding Commerce’s decisions arbitrary and capricious and remanding the matter to the agency, the Court accepted NLMK’s position that Commerce’s regulation requires it to consider NLMK’s “end use” of the steel slab in determining whether a suitable substitute is available in the domestic market. The Court further held that the agency’s purported reliance on the “secret” analysis of third-party “Subject Matter Experts” was improper, finding that Commerce could not “rely upon conclusive statements of unidentified experts.”

View the court decision here. The Chaffetz Lindsey team included Sandy Litvack, Drew Poplinger, Matthew Burke, and Oslen Grant.

The Law360 article is available here, though a subscription might be required for access.