The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on March 12 affirmed a federal D.C. court's dismissal of Venezuelan national Samark Jose Lopez Bello's suit against his designation as a narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Samark Jose Lopez Bello v. Andrea M. Gacki, D.C. Cir. # 21-01727).
The Court of International Trade on March 11 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results excluding importer Crane Resistoflex's ductile iron lap joint flanges from the antidumping duty order on pipe fittings from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu upheld the decision as now being in a form the court could sustain, after previously finding it to not be, and as being backed by substantial evidence due to the agency's consideration of a host of (k)(1) factors.
Ford Motor Company agreed to pay $365 million to settle allegations that it knowingly undervalued hundreds of thousands of cargo vans, DOJ announced. The settlement comes five years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that CBP properly classified Ford's Transit Connect vehicles as cargo vans, dutiable at 25%, and not as passenger vans, dutiable at 2.5%.
The U.S. told the World Trade Organization's Committee on Safeguards about the start of its safeguard investigation on fine denier polyester staple fiber, the WTO announced this week. The U.S. opened the investigation on Feb. 28, telling parties that wish to participate to file an entry of appearance with the secretary to the International Trade Commission no later "than 21 days after publication of the notice of institution in the Federal Register."
Three U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit judges argued against Judge Pauline Newman's claims against her colleagues' investigation into the 96-year-old judge's fitness to continue serving on the bench. After a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia kept some of Newman's constitutional claims alive (see 2402120057), Judges Kimberly Moore, Sharon Prost and Richard Taranto argued that Newman's Fourth Amendment and due process claims both fell flat (Hon. Pauline Newman v. Hon. Kimberly Moore, D.D.C. # 23-01334).
Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was found guilty March 8 of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S. and of gun-related offenses, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
DOJ attorney Tara Hogan submitted a letter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit correcting a statement she made during March 7 oral argument in a countervailing duty case on ripe olives from Spain (Asociacion de Exportadores e Industriales v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1162).
The Court of International Trade in a confidential March 11 opinion remanded the Commerce Department's final results of the sixth review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. In a letter to the litigants, Judge Richard Eaton said he intends to issue a public version of the opinion "in the near future," giving parties until March 18 to review the confidential information in the matter (Fusong Jinlong Wooden Group Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 19-00144).
The Court of International Trade released its questions ahead of March 19 oral arguments in a case on the 2019-21 review of the antidumping duty order on Indian quartz countertops. Judge Mark Barnett asked a host of questions pertaining to the Commerce Department's filing deadlines (Cambria Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00007).