Primesource Building Products, Inc. v. United States

59 F.4th 1255
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedFebruary 7, 2023
Docket21-2066
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 59 F.4th 1255 (Primesource Building Products, Inc. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Primesource Building Products, Inc. v. United States, 59 F.4th 1255 (Fed. Cir. 2023).

Opinion

Case: 21-2066 Document: 86 Page: 1 Filed: 02/07/2023

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

PRIMESOURCE BUILDING PRODUCTS, INC., Plaintiff-Appellee

v.

UNITED STATES, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, GINA M. RAIMONDO, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE, CHRISTOPHER MAGNUS, COMMISSIONER OF U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, UNITED STATES CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Defendants-Appellants

______________________

2021-2066 ______________________

Appeal from the United States Court of International Trade in No. 1:20-cv-00032-TCS-JCG-MMB, Senior Judge Timothy C. Stanceu, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves, Judge M. Miller Baker

---------------------------------------------------

OMAN FASTENERS, LLC, HUTTIG BUILDING PRODUCTS, INC., HUTTIG, INC., Plaintiffs-Appellees

v. Case: 21-2066 Document: 86 Page: 2 Filed: 02/07/2023

UNITED STATES, JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, UNITED STATES CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, CHRISTOPHER MAGNUS, COMMISSIONER OF U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, GINA M. RAIMONDO, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE, Defendants-Appellants ______________________

2021-2252 ______________________

Appeal from the United States Court of International Trade in Nos. 1:20-cv-00037-TCS-JCG-MMB, 1:20-cv- 00045-TCS-JCG-MMB, Senior Judge Timothy C. Stanceu, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves, Judge M. Miller Baker. ______________________

Decided: February 7, 2023 ______________________

JEFFREY S. GRIMSON, Mowry & Grimson, PLLC, Wash- ington, DC, argued for plaintiff-appellee PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. Also represented by BRYAN PATRICK CENKO, JILL CRAMER, KRISTIN HEIM MOWRY, SARAH WYSS.

ANDREW CARIDAS, Perkins Coie, LLP, Washington, DC, argued for plaintiffs-appellees Oman Fasteners, LLC, Hut- tig Building Products, Inc., Huttig, Inc. Also represented by MICHAEL PAUL HOUSE; KARL J. WORSHAM, Phoenix, AZ.

MEEN GEU OH, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Di- vision, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, argued for defendants-appellants. Also represented by KYLE SHANE BECKRICH, BRIAN M. BOYNTON, TARA K. HOGAN, PATRICIA M. MCCARTHY. Case: 21-2066 Document: 86 Page: 3 Filed: 02/07/2023

PRIMESOURCE BUILDING PRODUCTS, INC. v. US 3

ADAM H. GORDON, The Bristol Group PLLC, Washing- ton, DC, for amicus curiae The American Steel Nail Coali- tion. Also represented by LAUREN FRAID, JENNIFER MICHELE SMITH. ______________________

Before TARANTO, CHEN, and STOLL, Circuit Judges. TARANTO, Circuit Judge. In 2018, pursuant to § 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Pub. L. No. 87-794, 76 Stat. 872, 877, codified as amended at 19 U.S.C. § 1862, the Secretary of Commerce reported to the President that steel imports threatened na- tional security by contributing to unsustainably low levels of use of domestic steel-producing capacity, and the Presi- dent, agreeing with the Secretary’s finding, issued Procla- mation 9705 to adopt a plan of action to address that threat, starting with imposition of higher tariffs on steel imports from certain countries but providing for monitor- ing and future adjustments if needed. In 2020, the Presi- dent issued Proclamation 9980, which, based on the required monitoring, raised tariffs on imports of steel de- rivatives such as nails and fasteners. That proclamation was challenged in two cases (before us here) filed in the Court of International Trade (Trade Court)—one by PrimeSource Building Products, Inc.; the other by Oman Fasteners, LLC, Huttig Building Products, Inc., and Hut- tig, Inc. (collectively, Oman Fasteners)—against the United States, the President, and two federal agencies and their heads (collectively, the government). The Trade Court held Proclamation 9980 to be unauthorized by § 232 because the new derivatives tariffs were imposed after the passing of certain deadlines for presidential action set forth in § 232. See PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. United States, 497 F. Supp. 3d 1333 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2021); PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. United States, 505 F. Supp. 3d 1352 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2021); Oman Fasteners, Case: 21-2066 Document: 86 Page: 4 Filed: 02/07/2023

LLC v. United States, 520 F. Supp. 3d 1332 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2021). The government appeals. After the Trade Court issued its decisions on the merits, we decided Transpacific Steel LLC v. United States, 4 F.4th 1306 (Fed. Cir. 2021), cert. denied, 142 S. Ct. 1414 (2022), which led the Trade Court to issue stays of its judgments in the two cases. In Trans- pacific, we upheld a presidential proclamation that in- creased tariffs on steel beyond Proclamation 9705’s rate, concluding that when the President, within the § 232 time limits at issue, adopts a plan of action that contemplates future contingency-dependent modifications, those time limits do not preclude the President from later adding to the initial import impositions in order to carry out the plan to help achieve the originally stated national-security ob- jective where the underlying findings and objective have not grown stale. We now uphold Proclamation 9980. That proclamation’s new imposition reaches imports of steel de- rivatives, which are within § 232’s authorization of presi- dential action based on the Secretary’s finding about imports of steel, and there is no staleness or other persua- sive reason for overriding the President’s judgment that in- cluding derivatives helps achieve the specific, original national-security objective. We therefore reverse the judg- ments of the Trade Court. I A Section 232 “empowers and directs the President to act to alleviate threats to national security from imports.” Id. at 1311. For the President to act, the Secretary of Com- merce must, under § 232(b), first investigate the effects on national security of imports of an article and submit to the President within 270 days a report detailing the Secre- tary’s findings about such effects. 19 U.S.C. § 1862(b)(1)(A)–(3)(A). The report must contain the Secre- tary’s recommendations for action or inaction with respect Case: 21-2066 Document: 86 Page: 5 Filed: 02/07/2023

PRIMESOURCE BUILDING PRODUCTS, INC. v. US 5

to imports of that article. Id. § 1862(b)(3)(A). If the Secre- tary finds that imports of the article “threaten to impair the national security, the Secretary shall so advise the President in [the] report.” Id. Under § 232(c), within 90 days of receiving the Secretary’s report, the President must determine whether to concur in that finding. Id. § 1862(c)(1)(A)(i). If the President concurs in that finding, then within the same 90 days “the President shall” also “determine the nature and duration of the action that, in the judgment of the President, must be taken to adjust the imports of the article and its derivatives so that such im- ports will not threaten to impair the national security.” Id. § 1862(c)(1)(A) (emphasis added). If the President deter- mines to take action with respect to the import of the arti- cle and its derivatives, “the President shall implement that action” within 15 days of the foregoing determinations, id. § 1862(c)(1)(B), that is, within 105 days of the Secretary’s report. B In 2017, the Secretary began investigating steel im- ports and concluded that they posed a threat to national security. J.A. 232–35.

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Related

PrimeSource Bldg. Prods., Inc. v. United States
662 F. Supp. 3d 1379 (Court of International Trade, 2023)

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Bluebook (online)
59 F.4th 1255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/primesource-building-products-inc-v-united-states-cafc-2023.