On August 2, 2021, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) held a status conference and issued its second order revising certain deadlines originally established in its July 6 decision and order granting the plaintiff group’s motion for a preliminary injunction in the ongoing Section 301 tariff refund litigation involving imports of certain Chinese products. The preliminary injunction suspended liquidation of unliquidated entries subject to List 3 and List 4A Section 301 duties which, the plaintiff group alleges, are not authorized under the original investigation of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) into China’s actions adversely affecting U.S. intellectual property rights, innovation, or technology development. Because the plaintiff group and the U.S. government defendants remain at odds in establishing the process for suspending liquidation of unliquidated entries, the CIT has adjusted the following deadlines:

  1. an August 9, 2021 deadline for filing a status report;
  2. an August 20, 2021 deadline for the government defendants to establish the repository for entering unliquidated entry information; and
  3. an August 20, 2021 deadline for additional proposed modifications by the parties to the CIT’s preliminary injunction order.

The September 2, 2021 deadline, however, temporarily restraining U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from liquidating unliquidated entries was not addressed and currently remains in place.