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).
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's decision on remand to drop the use of total adverse facts available against exporter Apiario Diamante Comercial Exportadora, with Apiario Diamante Producao e Comercial de Mel known as Supermel, in the antidumping duty investigation on raw honey from Brazil. The result saw Supermel's AD rate drop from 83.72% to 10.52%.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Jan. 27 meeting includes a request from China to establish a panel in its dispute against Turkey's measures on electric vehicles and other types of vehicles from China.
The EU requested consultations with China at the World Trade Organization, alleging that China has empowered its courts to set worldwide royalty rates for EU standard essential patents, without the consent of the patent owner. The EU alleged that the measures violate Article 64.1 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Article XXII:1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.
A resident of both India and New Jersey who operated jewelry companies in New York City was sentenced Jan. 23 to 30 months in prison for leading a scheme to evade customs duties on over $13.5 million of jewelry imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced. Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and operating and aiding the operation of an "unlicensed money transmitting business."