Tesla's Chinese subsidiary, Tesla (Shanghai), and BMW both filed suit against the European Commission in the European Court of Justice after being hit with countervailing duties by the EU in October on their electric vehicle exports (see 2410290031). The bloc imposed a 7.8% duty rate on Tesla, while BMW received the 20.7% CVD rate assigned to other cooperating respondents. Other Chinese electric vehicle exporters, including BYD, Geely and SAIC, also were hit with the duties. Neither Tesla nor BMW has made any further filings or pleadings in their cases after filing their actions in the top European court. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
The following new lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department erred in selecting Turkey and not Bulgaria as the main surrogate country in the 2022-23 review of the antidumping duty order on pure magnesium from China, exporters Tianjin Magnesium International Co. and Tianjin Magnesium Metal Co. argued in a Jan. 27 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Tianjin Magnesium International Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00002).
The Commerce Department erred in picking Malaysia as the main surrogate country in the 2022-23 review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China, exporter Carbon Activated Corp. argued in a Jan. 27 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Carbon Activated said that Romania was the better choice and that Commerce's use of Malaysia surrogate values for coal tar, sub-bituminous coal, hydrochloric acid, solid sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide was unsupported by substantial evidence (Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00265).
After the Trump administration released a memo outlining the scope of trade action to be taken during his term, one thing became clear, according to a variety of trade attorneys: antidumping duty and countervailing duty rates are about to soar.
Kelley Drye added four attorneys from Sandler Travis to its export controls and economic sanctions team, the firm announced. The new additions are partner Kristine Pirnia, special counsel Catherine Cayce, associates Narges Kahvazadeh and Sanam Bhalla, along with non-attorney export controls specialist Molly Stevens.
Holland & Knight opened a new national security and defense industry group that will be led by Washington, D.C.-based partner and former general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Jason Klitenic. Other members of the group include former members of the U.S. intelligence community, federal law enforcement officers from DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Commerce Department. The group will focus on issues involving national security, including U.S. defense and intelligence contracting, international trade and cross-border regulatory compliance and defense appropriations.
Dan Stirk, former chief counsel for litigation in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, has joined Picard Kentz as counsel in the international trade practice, the firm announced. Stirk served as an attorney-adviser at USTR for nearly 18 years, covering World Trade Organization and free trade agreement dispute settlement proceedings, compliance proceedings and arbitration, the firm said.
The following new lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
Exporter Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co. took to the Court of International Trade on Jan. 24 to challenge the Commerce Department's surrogate value for land rental prices in Vietnam in the countervailing duty investigation on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam (Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00030).