Jenner & Block partner Rachel Alpert was tapped to serve as the chief counsel to the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, the firm announced on Oct. 24. Alpert has worked at Jenner & Block since 2021 and has fleshed out the firm's national security, sanctions and export controls practice, along with the human rights and global strategy practice. Her practice centered around export controls and sanctions proceedings under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, Export Administration Regulations and OFAC regulations, among other things. Prior to working at Jenner & Block, Alpert worked as an attorney-adviser to the State Department and as counsel at Latham & Watkins.
Senior trade officials met at the World Trade Organization Oct. 23 and 24 to "take stock of progress on issues on the negotiating agenda" in the run-up to the 13th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. On Oct. 23, WTO members adopted a decision to aid least-developed countries in graduating from LDC status and broke out into sessions on agriculture, trade and development and dispute settlement reform. The next day, breakout sessions covered trade and industrial policy and trade and environmental sustainability.
The U.K. on Oct. 25 issued a new license under its Russia and Belarus sanctions regimes related to certain legal services payments, replacing the current license that was scheduled to expire Oct. 28 (see 2305010012), according to the EU Sanctions blog. Under the new license, the cap for services based on a prior obligation and services not based on a prior obligation may not exceed 10% of the "amount payable for the professional legal fees and Counsel's fees," or around $60,700, whichever is lower.
The EU General Court on Oct. 25 annulled the listing of the ex-wife of Alfa Group founder Mikhail Fridman, referred to only as "QF" in the opinion, according to an unofficial translation. Originally sanctioned in April 2022, QF was delisted five months later. The court annulled her original listing. QF claimed the European Council based its decision on evidence lacking probative value and erroneously assessed the facts.
The U.S. asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for approval to use 3,000 more words in its reply brief in a case on the use of the Cohen's d test to root out "masked" dumping. The government said each of the three issues raised in the case is "complex and technical in nature." It said they cover two accounting issues and the intricacies of a statistical method, creating "good cause" for the additional words (Marmen v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1877).
The Commerce Department improperly rescinded the antidumping and countervailing duty reviews on wood moldings and millwork products from China as to exporters China Cornici Co. and RaoPing HongRong Handicrafts Co., the two companies argued in a pair of complaints at the Court of International Trade (China Cornici Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00216, -00217).
The Commerce Department failed to link its finding of the Chinese government's control over exporter Pirelli Tyre Co.'s management to the company's export activities, Pirelli told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in its Oct. 24 opening brief. The agency "adopted an unlawful interpretation and application of the rebuttable presumption" of government control as part of the 2017-18 antidumping duty review of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, the brief said (Pirelli Tyre Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2266).
The Commerce Department flipped its position on remand to find that exporter Yama Ribbons and Bows Co. didn't use China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, though it did continue to find that the exporter benefited from the provision of caustic soda and synthetic yarn for less than adequate remuneration (Yama Ribbons and Bows Co. v. United States, CIT # 21-00402).
The U.S. filed a forfeiture complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against a 348-foot superyacht allegedly owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, DOJ announced Oct. 23. The vessel, worth more than $300 million, was seized in 2022 in Fiji following a U.S. request for mutual legal assistance. The yacht was "improved and maintained in violation of" sanctions on Kerimov and "those acting on his behalf," DOJ alleged.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judges Kimberly Moore, Sharon Prost and Richard Taranto's motion for the establishment of a dispute resolution process in Judge Pauline Newman's suit against the three judges' fitness investigation on the 96-year-old judge. The D.C. court said in the text-only order that the parties are to contact Chief Circuit Mediator Robert Frost for further directions on establishing the dispute resolution procedure (The Hon. Pauline Newman v. The Hon. Kimberly A. Moore, D.D.C. # 23-01334).