We wanted to inform you of an opportunity to obtain potential refunds of China Section 301 additional duties paid on List 3 and/or List 4A products. Last week, three importers filed a lawsuit at the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) to challenge the imposition and assessment of these duties.

If you are interested in pursuing this opportunity for duty refunds, action should be taken this week to obtain the maximum potential refunds. The lawsuit filed last week in the CIT was under the CIT’s residual jurisdiction, which dictates that an action has to be commenced within 2 years of the cause of action accruing. Some commentators have said that cases must be filed by September 21, 2020 since the List 3 duties were published by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on September 21, 2018, while others have stated that the filing deadline is September 18. In any event, immediate action is necessary, and we are prepared to file CIT actions for clients before the end of the day on Friday.

The lawsuit appears to have only a long-shot chance of success and will likely require several years of litigation and appeals before a final decision is reached. However, if you have paid a significant amount of Section 301 additional duties under List 3 and/or List 4A and are willing to incur some relatively minimal costs to preserve your right to a potential refund, please contact Marshall Miller, Brian Murphy, Sean Murray, or Ryan Thornton as soon as possible to discuss.