Another recent court setback left Ninestar’s reentry into the U.S. market in doubt. Judge Gary S. Katzman ruled Feb. 27 that the company’s embargo applied by the U.S. government would remain in force. It is not Ninestar’s lone remedy for reinstation, but the denial of the injunction to stay the move has made a quick resolution highly unlikely.
Ninestar is suing the U.S. government and its Department of Homeland Security, et al, in the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) following its inclusion on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List. The Chinese company has denied the slave labor charges and says the U.S. embargo will have disastrous financial consequences.
Last June, Ninestar and other entities that have production operations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) were found in violation of the UFLPA by the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), an interagency group led by DHS.
A more immediate road to a lifting of the ban—a formal removal request petition to the FLETF with supporting information—was eschewed by Ninestar, which instead sued on the grounds that the U.S. government entities had violated the “reasoned decision-making requirement” of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA).
Judge Katzman’s decision means the legal process to clear Ninestar’s name will continue to be litigated in the CIT, with no sign of resolution in sight.
Charles Brewer of Actionable Intelligence provided much of the information in this news brief. A more comprehensive overview by Brewer will be included in ENX Magazine’s print edition.
