Furniture company Homestar North America will pay $798,334 to settle charges that it violated the False Claims Act by underreporting the value of its Chinese imports to avoid customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Texas announced. Of the total penalty, $151,683 will go to the whistleblower in the action: Larry Edwards, a logistics and warehouse manager who worked for Homestar for a short stint in 2020.
The Sierra Club on Dec. 12 moved to voluntarily dismiss its lawsuit challenging the Department of Energy's approval of liquefied natural gas export applications for increased volumes submitted by Magnolia LNG and Golden Pass LNG Terminal. Sierra Club's decision came after DOE released a notice saying the authorizations for the two terminals have expired and are no longer in effect. Magnolia first moved to withdraw the lawsuit earlier this month (see 2312060049). (Sierra Club v. U.S. Department of Energy, D.C. Cir. # 22-1217).
Countervailing duty petitioner Daikin America will appeal an October Court of International Trade decision sustaining the Commerce Department's decision to drop its subsidy finding against exporter Gujarat Fluorochemicals concerning a 30-year land lease to one of its affiliates, Inox Wind Limited, by India's State Industrial Development Corp. The trade court said the subsidy finding couldn't be legal due to Commerce's interpretation of its regulation, which says the agency will attribute -- to the affiliates' combined sales -- subsidies received by related input suppliers whose inputs are mainly dedicated to the production of downstream merchandise. The court ruled the provision of electricity is not primarily dedicated to the production of granular polytetrafluorethylene, the subject of the CVD investigation, adding that Commerce misunderstood the production chain (see 2310160026) (Gujarat Fluorochemicals v. United States, CIT # 22-00120).
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 12 granted the government's request for a remand so the Commerce Department can reconsider its use of Descartes data in calculating an ocean freight benchmark. Sending back the 2021 countervailing duty review on solar products from China, Judge Jane Restani said that on remand Commerce should consider the court's ruling in a separate case that addresses the use of Descartes data in this context, "as well the court's other rulings on the ocean freight issue."
The Commerce Department didn't give antidumping duty respondent PT. Asia Pacific Fibers a "reasonable" chance to address issues found by Commerce in the company's verification responses, the Court of International Trade ruled Dec. 12. Because Commerce never issued a verification report to Asia Pacific, Judge Richard Eaton said the agency must report the "methods, procedures, and results" of verification and let the company address any issues.
More "intensive work" still remains if World Trade Organization members want to set a final negotiating text on fisheries subsidies before the 13th Ministerial Conference in February, they said during a negotiating session this month.
Chile formally accepted the agreement on fisheries subsidies on Dec. 12, bringing to 53 the number of World Trade Organization members to have accepted the deal, the WTO announced. This number is "nearly half" of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification. Claudia Sanhueza Riveros, Chile's undersecretary of international economic relations, said the deal "is a very important agreement, especially for countries in the Pacific, where our marine ecosystems are generally being overexploited. It also seeks to address the global challenges we face in terms of the sustainability of our environment and our oceans.”
Dallas-based importer ADCO Industries, also known as Dallco Marketing, settled charges that it violated the False Claims Act by avoiding customs duties on Chinese industrial product imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas announced. The company agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle the whistleblower action, with $500,000 going to whistleblowers Donald Reznicek and Collen McFarland.
The Commerce Department asked the Court of International Trade for a voluntary remand on Dec. 11 in a countervailing duty case so it can reconsider or further explain its calculations for the ocean freight benchmark in light of a recent CIT ruling questioning the use of Descartes data. The present suit concerns the 2021 administrative review of the CVD order on solar products from China in which Commerce only used Descartes data to set the benchmark, prompting the case from solar cell exporters, led by Trina Solar (Changzhou) Science & Technology Co. (Trina Solar (Changzhou) Science & Technology Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00219).
The Court of International Trade sent back the Commerce Department's decision to disregard Indonesian crude palm oil prices when it calculated antidumping duty respondent Wilmar's normal value, which was based off an export levy set by the Indonesian government. In a Nov. 21 opinion made public Dec. 12, Judge Richard Eaton said if the agency sticks with the particular market situation adjustment in the AD investigation on Indonesian biodiesel, it must explain why doing so doesn't lead to a double remedy, since Commerce countervailed the export levy in the related countervailing duty investigation.