The Court of International Trade on Feb. 20 rejected a Commerce Department scope ruling finding R210-S engines made by Chonging Rato Technology Co. fall within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc and parts thereof from China.
Exporter CVB will appeal a January Court of International Trade decision upholding the International Trade Commission's affirmative injury finding on mattresses from a host of countries to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The trade court found various errors in the ITC's assessment of whether the market industry is segmented but nevertheless sustained the injury determination due to the "harmless error" principle (see 2312200070) (CVB v. U.S., CIT # 21-00288).
Antidumping duty petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that exporter Oman Fasteners' opposition to its bid to stay the appeal is a strategic delay tactic (Oman Fasteners v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1350).
Georgia woman Skeeter-Jo Stoute-Francois filed suit at the Court of International Trade Feb. 16 to contest six questions on the October 2021 customs broker license exam. In her complaint, Stoute-Francois said that after appealing the test results to the Treasury Department, she was left just short of the 75% grade needed to pass the test, failing at 73.75% (Skeeter-Jo Stoute-Francois v. U.S., CIT # 24-00046).
A draft text on World Trade Organization dispute settlement reform efforts was released Feb. 16, ahead of the 13th Ministerial Conference, which is set to be held Feb. 26-29. In all, the text includes 11 sections, covering issues including alternative dispute resolution procedures and arbitration, panel proceedings, compliance and transparency. Notably, the text doesn't include any discussion of the appeal or review mechanism, which is seen as the largest sticking point in reform talks.
Four World Trade Organization members -- Barbados, Dominica, Senegal and Uruguay -- formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies Feb. 14, the WTO announced. Sixty member countries have now accepted the deal, which is 55% of the way to the two-thirds threshold of members needed for the agreement to enter into force at the WTO.
A Florida husband and wife were each sentenced to 57 months in prison on Feb. 14 for illegally avoiding customs duties and violating the Lacey Act on between $25 million and $65 million worth of plywood products, DOJ announced. Noel and Kelsy Hernandez Quintana also were ordered to pay, "jointly and severally, $42,417,318.50 in forfeitures, as well as $1,630,324.46 in storage costs incurred by the government" after the couple "declined to abandon" the plywood seized by the government, DOJ said.
Exporter Tau-Ken Temir (TKT) and Kazakhstan's Ministry of Trade and Integration argued in a Feb. 12 reply brief that the Commerce Department doesn't have "essentially total discretion to decide deadlines and acceptance of filings." Responding to claims from the U.S. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, TKT and the Kazakh ministry said the government didn't claim that any prejudice would have resulted from granting TKT's one-day extension request, which would have absolved the company from missing a filing deadline in a countervailing duty proceeding by 90 minutes (Tau-Ken Temir v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
German corporation Conti, owner of the "Flaminia" vessel, petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit for rehearing on whether the court had personal jurisdiction over Mediterranean Shipping Co. in a suit seeking to confirm a $200 million arbitration award against the shipping giant. Conti said the grounds on which the appellate court rejected personal jurisdiction were twice waived since the company failed to raise them before the trial court and in its opening brief, and are wrong as a "factual matter" (Conti 11. Container Schiffarts-Gmbh & Co. KG M.S., MSC Flaminia v. MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., 5th Cir. # 22-30808).
CBP on Feb. 15 reversed its finding that importer Columbia Aluminum Products evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China (Columbia Aluminum Products v. United States, CIT # 19-00185).