Jacob Kopnick

Former International Trade Commissioner chair and current commissioner Rhonda Schmidtlein will join WilmerHale as a partner in the international trade, investment and market access practice group, the firm announced. The ITC, in a concurrent press release, said the commissioner will step down Feb. 1. Schmidtlein was confirmed to the ITC in 2014, previously serving as chair for 17 months in 2017-18.

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

The International Trade Commission "largely ignored" data trends in finding there to be significant price effects and an adverse impact caused by shipments of aluminum lithographic printing plates from China and Japan, exporter Fujifilm Corp. argued in a Jan. 15 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The company also challenged the commission's decision to include its affiliate, Fujifilm-Greenwood, in the domestic industry and finding of significant adverse volume effects (Fujifilm North America Corp. v. United States, CIT # 24-00251).

The Commerce Department defended its finding that currency undervaluation in Vietnam is specific to the traded goods sector, submitting remand results to the Court of International Trade on Jan. 15. The agency addressed various points the trade court sent back for further explanation, including Commerce's statutory authority for its specificity finding and the information the agency found missing from the record as its basis for using facts available (Kumho Tire (Vietnam) Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 21-00397).

The Court of International Trade on Jan. 16 said the Korean government's full allotment of carbon emissions credits to exporter Hyundai Steel Co. is de jure specific. Judge M. Miller Baker issued a decision in a pair of cases on the issue, finding that the conditions for eligibility for the additional credits aren't neutral and are based on "the substantive character" of the company's "operations."

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Jan. 16 denied exporter Koehler Oberkirch's petition for writ of mandamus, which sought to have the appellate court review the Court of International Trade's decision that the government could effect service on the company via its U.S. counsel. Judges Timothy Dyk, Tiffany Cunningham and Leonard Stark said Koehler failed to meet the "demanding standard" for granting mandamus relief (In Re Koehler Oberkirch, Fed. Cir. # 25-106).

Ryan Majerus, former acting assistant secretary for enforcement and compliance at the Commerce Department, has joined King & Spalding as a partner in the international trade practice, the firm announced. Majerus has held various positions in the U.S. government, including senior policy adviser for supply chains at the White House National Economic Council and assistant general counsel in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

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

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week heard oral argument on whether the Commerce Department erred in using adverse facts available against exporter Tau-Ken Temir in a countervailing duty review due to the company's failure to meet filing deadlines. Judges Todd Hughes, Sharon Prost and Timothy Dyk sharply questioned counsel for both Tau-Ken Temir and the government regarding whether the exporter took best efforts to meet filing deadlines and whether the government acted reasonably in rejecting the submission that was filed two hours late (Tau-Ken Temir v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).

The Commerce Department reasonably used exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi's invoice date as the date of sale in the 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on steel concrete rebar from Turkey, the Court of International Trade held on Jan. 15. Judge Jane Restani also upheld Commerce's differences-in-merchandise adjustment, finding that the adjustment wasn't distoritive in the way that it controlled for inflation.