Generic drugmaker KVK Research pleaded guilty last week to charges that it "introduced adulterated drugs into interstate commerce" in violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, agreeing to pay $1.5 million in fines and forfeiture, DOJ announced.
Sai Keung Tin, a Chinese national, was indicted March 8 on four counts of illegally exporting eastern box turtles, a "protected wildlife species," from the U.S. to China for the "global pet trade black market," DOJ announced. Tin faces a maximum 10-year prison stint for each smuggling count.
Hyundai Challenges Commerce's de Facto Specificity Analysis on Korean Electricity in CVD Review Suit
Exporter Hyundai Steel Co. argued against the Commerce Department's finding that the South Korean government's provision of electricity for less than adequate remuneration is de facto specific in the 2021 countervailing duty review on cut-to-length carbon-quality steel plate from South Korea. Filing a motion for judgment on March 12, Hyundai claimed that the record doesn't show that the steel industry "received a disproportionately large amount of this subsidy" as required by a de facto specificity analysis (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00211).
The Commerce Department on March 12 said that on remand it treated exporter Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. as a mandatory respondent in the 2020-21 review of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan, assigning the company a 5.2% AD rate. The agency asked for the remand so it could grant the exporter mandatory respondent status following a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision that said Commerce must use more than one mandatory respondent where multiple companies request review (see 2208290026) (Optima Steel International v. U.S., CIT # 23-00108).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade on March 11 granted importer Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing Co.'s motion to voluntarily dismiss 12 of its customs suits. The voluntary dismissal bid comes after the importer lost a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case on the classification of its textile gloves with a plastic coating on the palm and fingers (see 2312060028). The appellate court said the gloves are classified as gloves under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 6116, not as articles of plastics under heading 3926 (Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing Co v. U.S., CIT # 16-00036, -00040, -00044, -00149, -00151, -00152, -00153, -00166, 17-00001, -00003, -00004 and -00098).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on March 12 affirmed a federal D.C. court's dismissal of Venezuelan national Samark Jose Lopez Bello's suit against his designation as a narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Samark Jose Lopez Bello v. Andrea M. Gacki, D.C. Cir. # 21-01727).
The Court of International Trade on March 11 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results excluding importer Crane Resistoflex's ductile iron lap joint flanges from the antidumping duty order on pipe fittings from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu upheld the decision as now being in a form the court could sustain, after previously finding it to not be, and as being backed by substantial evidence due to the agency's consideration of a host of (k)(1) factors.
Ford Motor Company agreed to pay $365 million to settle allegations that it knowingly undervalued hundreds of thousands of cargo vans, DOJ announced. The settlement comes five years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that CBP properly classified Ford's Transit Connect vehicles as cargo vans, dutiable at 25%, and not as passenger vans, dutiable at 2.5%.
The U.S. told the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards about the start of its safeguard investigation on fine denier polyester staple fiber, the WTO announced this week. The U.S. opened the investigation on Feb. 28, telling parties that wish to participate to file an entry of appearance with the secretary to the International Trade Commission no later "than 21 days after publication of the notice of institution in the Federal Register."