The Commerce Department's third factor for assessing a foreign government's de facto control over an exporter, which addresses the selection of management, doesn't require a link to export activities, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held on Feb. 11. Judges Sharon Prost, Richard Taranto and Raymond Chen also held that Commerce properly requires separate rate respondents to "carry a burden of persuasion to justify a separate rate," rejecting exporter Pirelli Tyre Co.'s claim that the agency shouldn't have conflated a rebuttable presumption with a requirement to carry a burden of persuasion.
Savannah Maxwell, an international trade attorney at the Commerce Department, will depart the agency to join Mowry & Grimson as an associate, she told Trade Law Daily. Maxwell joined Commerce's Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance in 2019 as a staff attorney. She was promoted to senior attorney last year (see 2403010020).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 7 released a host of documents in the ongoing investigation on Judge Pauline Newman's fitness to continue serving on the court. The most recent document released by the court is an order compelling Newman to produce all medical records reviewed by her physician, Dr. Aaron Filler, in light of Newman's submission of a report from Filler purportedly showing that the 97-year-old judge doesn't suffer from any mental disability. The three judges conducting the probe of Newman's fitness -- Judges Kimberly Moore, Sharon Prost and Richard Taranto -- identified a number of issues with Filler's report, prompting the order to "produce all medical records reviewed by Dr. Filler." Newman is concurrently challenging her colleagues' investigation, and the related suspension from receiving new cases at the court, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2412100042).
A California customs broker pleaded guilty Feb. 7 to defrauding importers out of more than $5 million and committing over $1 million in tax evasion, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced. The broker, Frank Seung Noah, copped to two counts of wire fraud, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison each, and one count of tax evasion, for which he faces five years in prison.
The following lawsuit was filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade reassigned a case on importer Meyer Corp.'s claim for first sale valuation on its cookware imports, from Judge Thomas Aquilino to Judge Richard Eaton. In his first decision in the case, Aquilino questioned whether first sale valuation could be used for goods coming from non-market economies. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said CBP has no basis to consider a nation's NME status when deciding whether to grant first sale treatment, sending the case back for consideration of Meyer's shipments (see 2208110060). In his second opinion, Aquilino said the imports at issue don't quality for first sale treatment due to the failure of Meyer's parent company, Meyer International Holdings, to submit financial information (see 2302090053). This decision is now before the Federal Circuit again, which held oral argument in September 2024 (see 2409040034) (Meyer Corp. v. United States, CIT # 13-00154).
Exporter Kingtom Aluminio opposed an attempt by U.S. industry groups the Aluminum Extruders Council and the United Steelworkers union to intervene in Kingtom's case against a finding by CBP that the company uses forced labor. Kingtom argued that the petitioners want to employ the "age-old schoolyard tactic of 'two-against-one,'" adding that the parties have "no independent interest of their own in this action" (Kingtom Aluminio v. United States, CIT # 24-00264).
Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized an aircraft used by sanctioned Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA) at the request of the U.S. government due to alleged sanctions and export control violations, DOJ announced.
Importer Shamrock Building Materials filed a stipulation of dismissal in its customs case at the Court of International Trade on Feb. 7. The importer brought the suit to contest CBP's classification of its electrical metallic tubing finished conduit and intermediate metal conduit under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 7306.30.1000 or 7306.30.5028, dutiable at 25%. The company said the products should fall under duty-free subheading 8547.90.0020. Counsel for Shamrock didn't respond to a request for comment (Shamrock Building Materials v. United States, CIT # 21-00571).
The Commerce Department unreasonably found that a sales-based particular market situation doesn't exist in Turkey, thus erring in picking Turkey as a third country comparison market in the antidumping duty investigation on melamine from Qatar, petitioner Cornerstone Chemical Co. argued in a Feb. 7 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Cornerstone Chemical Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00005).