Jacob Kopnick

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 18 upheld the Commerce Department's decision on remand to drop the countervailing duty on exporter Risen Energy Co. related to its alleged receipt of benefits under China's Export Buyer's Credit Program. Judge Jane Restani said the move was in line with the court's prior decision.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 19 declined to grant victory to G&H Diversified Manufacturing on the importer's claims that CBP previously, as part of its role in granting a Section 232 duty exclusion, already said the company's imports were subject to the exclusion. Judge Timothy Reif said open questions of fact still exist with regard to the extent of CBP's role in the exclusion process.

The World Trade Organization and the Asian Development Bank jointly launched a database on trade in critical minerals to boost transparency on those minerals and "support the clean energy transition," the WTO announced. The database provides "up-to-date critical minerals trade data, related policies, and visualisations of trade patterns based on publicly available sources," the WTO said. "Data can be visualised as bar charts, tree maps, and network graphs, providing insights into the main trading partners, product specialization, and trade networks."

The chair of the World Trade Organization General Council, Norway's Petter Olberg, detailed during the Dec. 16-17 general council meeting the "significant progress" made on WTO dispute settlement reform talks, though he encouraged members to find a way forward on the form an appeal or review mechanism should take.

The Supreme Court on Dec. 18 agreed to take up TikTok's case against the bill either banning the app or forcing it to divest its U.S. operations. The court granted the TikTok's petition for writ of certiorari though it deferred its application for an injunction against the bill pending oral argument. Initial briefs in the suit are due by Dec. 27 (TikTok v. Merrick Garland, Sup. Ct. # 24-656).

Importer Performance Additives told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the notion that Congress created a "two-track framework" for deemed liquidation of drawback claims where some claims aren't subject to deemed liquidation at all and others aren't subject to any time limit on liquidation is "nonsense." Filing a reply brief last week, the company said this interpretation of the statutory framework is "blatantly contrary to Congress' stated intent" (Performance Additives v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-2059).

The U.S. this week arrested a dual U.S.-Iranian national living in Massachusetts and an Iranian national, charging both with conspiring to ship "sophisticated electronic components" from the U.S. to Iran in violation of U.S. export controls and sanctions.

Canadian-German national Klaus Pflugbeil, a resident of China, was sentenced Dec. 16 to two years in prison for conspiring to steal and transmit a U.S.-based electric vehicle company's trade secrets, DOJ announced. Pflugbeil pleaded guilty in June, admitting to trying to use a U.S. company's trade secrets to set up his own business in China (see 2406140025). Pflugbeil was originally charged alongside his business partner, Yilong Shao, who remains at large.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 16 issued its mandate in a customs suit on the classification of importer Shamrock Building Materials' steel tubing with insulating material (Shamrock Building Materials v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1648).