Two Commerce Department attorneys, Chris Kimura and Hendricks Valenzuela, have left Commerce in recent days, they both confirmed to Trade Law Daily. Kimura left to join Blank Rome as an associate, according to his LinkedIn page. The pair join former Commerce attorney Savannah Maxwell, who also is leaving the agency to join the private sector (see 2502100007).
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's Feb. 24 meeting includes a request from China to establish a panel in its dispute against Turkey's measures on electric vehicles and other types of vehicles from China.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
A federal court in Kentucky found that Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations licensing requirements for technical data don't violate the First Amendment as a restriction on free speech. Judge David Hale of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky said the licensing requirements "advance important government interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech" and don't burden "substantially more speech than necessary to further those interests" (United States v. Pascoe, W.D. Ky. # 3:22-88).
Anti-forced labor advocacy group International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) doesn't have standing to challenge CBP's failure to respond to a withhold release order petition to ban cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire, the U.S. argued in a Feb. 20 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government claimed that IRAdvocates has not established that it suffered an "injury in fact." It also said any alleged injury isn't "traceable" to the "non-issuance of a WRO," and that the alleged injury isn't "redressable" by CBP (International Rights Advocates v. Kristi Noem, Fed. Cir. # 24-2316).
The Commerce Department properly included Asia Wheel Co.'s trailer wheels made of Chinese rims and Thai discs in the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on steel trailer wheels from China, the Court of International Trade held in a pair of nearly identical decisions. Judge Gary Katzmann said that Commerce didn't illegally expand the scope of the orders since the agency left open the possibility in the original AD/CVD investigations to discuss mixed-origin wheels in a later scope ruling.
Karalyn Mildorf, a former partner at White & Case, has joined Clifford Chance to work on international trade and national security issues, the firm announced. Mildorf's practice centers on Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. matters, compliance with the U.S. outbound investment security program, and more, the firm said.
Ashley Akers, former senior trial counsel at DOJ, has joined Holland & Knight as senior counsel, Akers announced on LinkedIn. Akers served at DOJ for over seven years, joining initially as a trial attorney then moving to senior trial counsel in 2024. At DOJ, Akers worked on a number of trade remedies cases at the Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Ethiopia reaffirmed its commitment to "accelerating its accession process" to the World Trade Organization with aims to conclude talks by the 14th Ministerial Conference in March 2026, the WTO announced. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and the country's steering committee on WTO access at the African Union Summit on Feb. 16 to discuss ramping up accession negotiations, the WTO said.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade: