UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Slip Op. 22-142

Before the Court in Virtus Nutrition LLC v. United States, Court No. 21-165, Slip Op. 22-142 was plaintiff’s motion to voluntarily dismiss its case challenging U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (“CBP”) denial of plaintiff’s protest regarding the exclusion from entry into the United States of certain palm oil fatty acid distillates and palm stearin products from Malaysia. Plaintiff sought to incorporate into the dismissal a storage agreement between plaintiff and CBP allowing for exportation of the subject merchandise.   For the following reasons the Court voluntarily dismissed the case but did not include the temporary storage agreement in the dismissal order.

“USCIT Rule 41(a)(2) provides that an action may be dismissed at the plaintiff’s request only by court order, on terms that the court considers proper.’” Id. at 3. The Court did not consider it proper to incorporate the agreement because the agreement does not “remain in effect beyond the conclusion of this litigation until the point at which plaintiff may ‘re-export or destr[oy]’ the merchandise. Id. at 4. In addition, the Court said that plaintiff’s claims that Customs may seize the goods could not be proper because “legal prejudice does not include . . . uncertainty from the threat of future litigation” and “the purpose of USCIT Rule 41(a)(2)”is “to protect the defendant.”Id. at 5. In addition, the Court also denied as moot the motion of the American Apparel & Footwear Association for leave to file a brief as amicus curiae.