The EU on July 3 declined to extend the protections in the Energy Charter Treaty -- a trade and investment deal for the energy sector -- to investments and investors from Russia and Belarus in order to boost its sanctions enforcement efforts, the European Commission announced. While neither Russia nor Belarus is a party to the Energy Charter Treaty, investors from these countries could theoretically use corporations set up in a signatory country to allege that the EU or its member states have violated "investment protection obligations" of the ECT and bring investor-state dispute settlement proceedings, the commission said. The EU's move eliminates the basis for making any such claim.
Douglas Robertson, former vice president of KanRus Trading Co., pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiring to violate U.S. export laws by shipping "sophisticated and controlled avionics equipment to customers in Russia," DOJ announced.
A Hallandale, Florida, resident was charged on July 2 with smuggling controlled goods into Russia from the U.S. Kirill Gordei, president of Florida-based freight forwarding company Apelsin Logistics, faces three counts -- conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S., smuggling goods from the U.S. and exporting a spectrometer, a controlled item, unlawfully -- DOJ announced. A Belarus citizen and U.S. permanent resident, Gordei faces maximums of five, 10 and 20 years in prison for the charges, respectively.
Antidumping duty petitioner Ventura Coastal invoked the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo -- which overturned the principle of Chevron deference -- to claim that the Court of International Trade doesn't need to adhere to the Commerce Department's interpretation of the statute "defining affiliation between parties" (Ventura Coastal v. U.S., CIT # 23-00009).
The Court of International Trade heard oral argument last week on the government's motion for alternative service in a customs penalty case against German paper exporter Koehler Oberkirch. The U.S. claimed that it was proper to serve Koehler via its U.S. counsel, attorneys at Holland and Knight, while the exporter said the government should have sought service through "diplomatic channels" (U.S. v. Koehler Oberkirch GmbH, CIT # 24-00014).
World Trade Organization members attending the June 25-28 Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee meeting discussed 21 proposals for the sixth review of the operation and implementation of the WTO Agreement on the Application of SPM. The proposal covered topics such as "addressing modern challenges and emerging risks, voluntary third-party assurance programmes, regionalization, technology, transparency, and maximum residue levels," the WTO said.
Kazakhstan formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies July 1, bringing to 78 the number of countries that have accepted the deal. The WTO requires 32 more to reach the two-thirds threshold needed for the agreement to be able to enter into force.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. will appeal a Court of International Trade decision finding that importer Fraserview Remanufacturing Inc. didn't need a protest to file suit at the trade court for its entries that were erroneously deemed liquidated while liquidation was suspended (see 2401250039). The court said that because the statute for deemed liquidation requires that the entries not be suspended, CBP's notices of deemed liquidation didn't operate to actually liquidate the entries. The government on July 1 said it will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Fraserview Remanufacturing Inc. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00244).
Exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container will appeal a May Court of International Trade decision sustaining the Commerce Department's recalculation of exporter Sahamitr's sales expenses in the 2019-20 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on steel propane cylinders from Thailand (see 2405020029). The court said that Sahamitr failed to undermine Commerce's finding that the company's monthly-based calculation of its sales costs were distortive. The exporter said on July 1 that it will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Sahamitr Pressure Container v. U.S., CIT # 22-00107).