Chinese printer cartridge maker Ninestar Corp., along with eight of its Zhuhai-based subsidiaries, opposed the U.S.'s motion to extend the time to file a response to their request for a preliminary injunction in a case against their addition to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List. Ninestar said the government, in asking for a total of 62 more days, failed to show "good cause" for needing a delay to address "even one element of the preliminary injunction test" (Ninestar Corporation v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
The U.S. and defendants led by importer Precision Cable Assemblies settled a False Claims Act case on allegedly underreported imports of wire harness assemblies. The suit was originally brought by Travis Grob, former vice president of operations at the Wisconsin-based Precision Cable Assemblies, as a qui tam action, giving Grob a cut of the settlement (United States v. Precision Cable Assemblies, E.D. Wis. # 22-00570).
The Court of International Trade on Sept. 11 ordered parties to answer whether there are any outstanding questions of fact in a customs spat on GoPro Hero camera housings. Judge Timothy Reif wants the issue resolved to see if the case is "ripe for summary judgment."
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. asked for a stay of a case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on an Enforce and Protect Act investigation on the alleged transshipment of Chinese xanthan gum via India. The government said the case should be suspended until the Royal Brush Manufacturing v. U.S. matter is resolved (All One God Faith v. United States, Fed. Cir. #s 23-1078, -1081).
The federal government opposed referral of a customs case to mediation since the proper classification of the product in question -- The Comfy blanket sweatshirt -- "is not of the type that is likely to be resolved through mediation." Filing its opposition to importer Cozy Comfort's motion for a postassignment conference to explore mediation at the Court of International Trade, the U.S. said mediation would not be beneficial, adding that the proceeding is "not a complex case" (Cozy Comfort Company v. United States, CIT # 22-00173).
The Commerce Department erred by not removing countervailing duty costs from the prices used to establish export price and constructed export price in the 2021 review of the antidumping duty order on softwood lumber products from Canada, petitioner Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations argued (Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations v. U.S., CIT # 23-00189).
The government "completely" misinterpreted industry abstracts it relied on justify the Commerce Department's classification of backsheet and ethyl vinyl acetate inputs as "sheets" and not "film" for Risen Energy's surrogate values in an antidumping duty review on solar cells from China, Risen argued in a Sept. 7 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Risen Energy Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1550).
The EU General Court on Sept. 6 upheld the European Council's sanctions listing of Belarusian businessman Mikail Gutseriev, finding that the European Council correctly interpreted the listing criteria to include nonfinancial types of support for the Belarus regime. Gutseriev, sanctioned in 2021, argued that the listing criteria under the Belarus sanctions regime should include only financial support, given its language saying parties shall be listed due to their "benefit from or support for" the Belarus government.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Beryl Howell will take senior status on Feb. 1, 2024, opening a vacancy on the federal court, the U.S. Courts website revealed. Howell was appointed to the court in 2010, prior to which she clerked for Judge Dickinson Debevoise in the District of New Jersey and was an assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. She also worked as the general counsel of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and as commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.