Shipping giant Maersk Line owes insurance company Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. over $5.8 million for losing around 57 containers of consumer goods at sea while carrying them from Cambodia and China to Los Angeles, the insurance firm argued in an Oct. 19 complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Starr, the insurer for retail giant Target Corp.'s goods, said the goods were lost due to the "negligence and breach of duty" of Maersk and its employees (Starr Indemnity & Liability Co. v. M/V Maersk Eindhoven, S.D.N.Y. # 23-09177).
Timothy Hruby, former chief of staff for the assistant secretary for enforcement and compliance at the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration, has joined Blank Rome as of counsel in the International Trade practice group. Hruby's practice will center on "international trade regulation," including trade remedies and customs proceedings, the firm announced. During his time at Commerce, Hruby worked as the lead negotiator for Commerce on trade remedies issues as part of the USMCA talks and "prepared high-level government officials for meetings with other U.S. and foreign government officials," the firm said. He is a U.S. roster member of binational panels for USMCA disputes.
The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office released a statement after a Court of Appeal decision relating to how the U.K. government may sanction a Russian entity based on what parties can exert control over it. The agency said it is "carefully considering" the decision's impact, specifically the decision that PJSC National Bank is controlled by sanctioned parties due to their political office (see 2301310028).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department failed to address contradicting that the U.S. industry couldn't timely provide tin mill products when it denied Seneca Foods' requests for exclusions from Section 232 steel and aluminum duties, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Oct. 18 opinion.
Chinese printer cartridge manufacturer Ninestar Corp. urged the Court of International Trade to order the U.S. to submit the full, unredacted administrative record relating to the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force's (FLETF's) decision to add Ninestar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. Even though the court has entered a protective order in the case, the government redacted over 99% of its submitted record (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
World Trade Organization members reached consensus on incorporating the investment facilitation for development (IFD) agreement into the WTO's legal architecture via a "plurilateral avenue," the WTO announced. Members said that during the Oct. 11-13 negotiations, they agreed to complete the agreement's final provisions under that route and also announced that Bolivia, Niger and Tonga had joined the initiative since the plenary meeting in September.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Oct. 17 order granted a stay in a case on the Enforce and Protect Act investigation on the alleged transshipment of Chinese xanthan gum via India until 30 days after all appeals are foreclosed in the key Royal Brush Manufacturing v. United States case. In Royal Brush, the appellate court said that CBP violated an importer's due process rights in an EAPA investigation by not providing that company access to the business confidential information in the proceeding (see 2307270038) (All One God Faith v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1078, -1081).
The Commerce Department illegally rejected importer LE Commodities' requests for exclusion from Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs on its imports of stainless steel round bar, the importer argued in an Oct. 16 complaint at the Court of International Trade. LE Commodities argued that looking at the record, the "only reasonable conclusion" was that the company cannot obtain these goods in the U.S. market in a "sufficient quantity or quality, on a timely basis to replace the steel it currently imports" (LE Commodities v. United States, CIT # 23-00220).
Akin's Devin Sikes was appointed to the Court of International Trade's Rules Advisory Committee. The commiAn international trade counsel at Akin, Sikes adjudicates trade remedies and customs matters.