A World Trade Organization dispute panel issued its report on Australia's dispute against Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine after the parties reached a mutually agreed solution to the case. Australia argued that China's AD/CVD violated numerous elements of both the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement. The parties told the dispute settlement body that they reached a settlement on March 29.
The EU General Court last week rejected a challenge from Belgium and Czech Republic-based company Cogebi to EU import restrictions on Russian-made mica products. The court said that the European Council had laid out sufficient reasons for barring the import of mica products in that the council appropriately found the sale of mica products to "generate significant revenues for the Russian Federation."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's Clerk's Office and Circuit Library will be unavailable "for public services and support" from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT on April 26, the court said. Electronic filing will remain available and nonelectronic filings can be sent to the night drop box on H Street, NW, in Washington, the court said.
Importer MKI Enterprise Group, doing business as Winbo USA, filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade on April 22 to contest CBP's denial of a Section 301 exclusion for its entries of "steel side protective attachments for motor vehicles, specifically side bars, fern bars, and bars" from China (MKI Enterprise Group v. United States, CIT # 22-00131).
Importer Saramax dismissed three customs cases it brought in 2000, 2003 and 2004 to contest the classification of its women's upper body garments. The company sought classification under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 6212.90.00, dutiable at 6.8%, while CBP classified the goods under HTS subheading 6109.10.00, dutiable at 18.8% (Saramax v. United States, CIT # 00-00539, 03-00897, 04-00395).
U.S. steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs filed stipulations of dismissal in two suits challenging the International Trade Commission's negative injury findings in the five-year reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from Brazil and the AD/CVD orders on hot-rolled steel from Brazil. The company had filed its complaint in both cases, arguing against the ITC's decision not to cumluate imports from Brazil with goods from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and the U.K.
The Court of International Trade again remanded the Commerce Department's remand results in the 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea, in an April 19 confidential opinion. In a letter to the litigants, Judge Mark Barnett gave the parties until April 26 to review the confidential information in the opinion. Barnett said Commerce shall "reconsider or further explain" its decision not to investigate the off-peak sale of electricity allegedly for less than adequate remuneration.
The Court of International Trade on April 19 sent back the International Trade Commission's decision to cumulate imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from Argentina, Mexico, Russia and South Korea, in part because the commission failed to take into account the effect of U.S. sanctions on Russia in assessing whether the Russian goods compete at the same level of competition as the good from the other nations.
Florida-based steel traders John Unsalan and Sergey Karpushkin were sentenced to six years and 21 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko violate U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed the government's appeal of a Court of International Trade decision scrapping a customs bond penalty action against surety firm American Home Assurance Co. The U.S. voluntarily dismissed the case (see 2404170042) (U.S. v. American Home Assurance Co., Fed. Cir. # 24-1069).