The U.S. in a June 25 brief defended the Commerce Department's finding that 16 of exporter Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co.'s input suppliers are government authorities based on adverse facts available, which was used due to the Chinese government's failure to provide adequate information (Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00136).
The Commerce Department can't extend an antidumping and countervailing duty circumvention finding based on adverse facts available for one mandatory respondent on a "country-wide basis," exporter Trina Solar Co. argued June 25. Filing a motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade, Trina said Commerce made "no company-specific findings" on whether all the cooperative companies were circumventing the AD/CVD orders on Chinese solar cells and, as a matter of law, can't impose the circumvention finding on those companies (Trina Solar (Vietnam) Science & Technology Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00228).
The EU extended its steel safeguard measure until June 30, 2026, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade announced. The measure imposes tariff rate quotas "above which a 25% duty is levied on imports." The TRQs were imposed in response to the U.S. Section 232 measures.
Joly Germine of Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in a scheme to illegally export firearms to Haiti and for laundering money paid for U.S. hostages held by the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo, DOJ announced.
The Drug Enforcement Administration told CBP that it believes importer UniChem's entry of "7-keto dehydroepiandrosterone is a Schedule III anabolic steroid and its importation violates DEA regulations." As a result, DEA requested that CBP seize the entry on DEA's behalf, the U.S. told the Court of International Trade in a June 25 status report (UniChem Enterprises v. U.S., CIT # 24-00033).
The Commerce Department reduced the antidumping duty rate for a collapsed entity, made up of exporter Siemens Gamesa, affiliated supplier Windar Renovables and five of Windar's subsidiaries, from 73% to 28.55% after reverting to the use of partial adverse facts available for the entity (Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy v. U.S., CIT # 21-00449).
The World Trade Organization's Committee on Trade and Environment during its June 19 meeting agreed to center upcoming "thematic sessions" on "trade-related climate measures, technology transfer, and sustainable agriculture," the WTO announced. The selection of the three themes were made in light of Trade and Environment Week, which the committee chair confirmed will take place Oct. 7-11. The environment week will feature a thematic session and "other events," the WTO said.
South Africa requested the establishment of two dispute panels to review EU restrictions on South African citrus fruit at the June 24 Dispute Settlement Body, marking the first time South Africa has used the dispute settlement system, the World Trade Organization announced. The measures are import restrictions to control the spread of the false coding moth and a fungus called the "citrus black spot."
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. on June 21 petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for either a panel or en banc rehearing of its decision to include dual-stenciled pipe in the scope of the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand (see 2405150027) (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2181).