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US Court of International Trade (CIT)
Practical Law Glossary Item w-020-5975 (Approx. 4 pages)
Glossary
US Court of International Trade (CIT)
A trial court established under Article III of the Constitution, located in New York City but with national jurisdiction over civil actions arising out of the customs and international trade laws of the US.
The CIT has all the powers in law and equity of a US district court. It is composed of up to nine active judges appointed for life, five of whom may be from the same political party. Final decisions of the CIT can be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The CIT was established by the Customs Courts Act of 1980 (Pub. L. No. 96-417, 94 Stat. 1727), which renamed and expanded the jurisdiction of the former US Customs Court. The CIT has exclusive jurisdiction over the civil actions set out in 28 U.S.C. §§ 1581 to 1584, which include, for example, cases involving:
- US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) decisions regarding:
- the tariff classification and valuation of imported merchandise;
- charges and exactions on imported merchandise;
- the exclusion of merchandise from entry into the US, including CBP's enforcement of exclusion orders issued by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) under 19 U.S.C. § 1337;
- the liquidation of import entries; and
- a refusal to pay a claim for drawback.
- Antidumping and countervailing duty determinations of the ITC and the US Department of Commerce.
- CBP's denial, suspension, or revocation of a customs broker's license.
- US government actions to recover certain penalties arising from import transactions.
For more information about these topics, see Practice Notes, Importing Goods: Overview (US) and Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations, Standard Document, Customs Broker Agreement, and ITC Section 337 Investigations Toolkit.
More information about the CIT, including copies of its opinions and orders, is available on its website.