CIT denies JBF Bahrain summary judgment in US-Bahrain FTA origin dispute

The U.S. Court of International Trade held in Slip Op. 26-99, Court No. 23-00067, that under HTSUS General Note 30 a third-country input must undergo double substantial transformation to count toward the 35 percent value requirement of the United States–Bahrain Free Trade Agreement, and that the CBP regulation adopting the tariff-shift test in 19 C.F.R. § 10.809(i) is ultra vires and invalid. The court denied JBF Bahrain W.L.L.'s motion for partial summary judgment and granted the government's cross-motion, finding the importer's tariff-shift reading of the regulation wrong in any event because it also requires the tariff shift to occur twice.