President Donald Trump's recent expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs likely would survive a judicial challenge, particularly in light of the string of cases challenging the Section 232 duties imposed during his first term, trade lawyers told us. Thomas Beline, partner at Cassidy Levy, said Trump's move to eliminate the country-specific arrangements and product exclusions is "likely defensible," since the statute lets the president take any action he deems necessary where an agreement is "not being carried out or is ineffective."
President Donald Trump on Feb. 10 instructed the attorney general to cease from opening any new investigations under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for 180 days so that the Office of the Attorney General can issue new guidelines for FCPA enforcement that "prioritize American interests" and U.S. "economic competitiveness." In the order, Trump said the FCPA has been "abused" and "impedes the United States' foreign policy objectives."
Importers Struxtur and Evolutions Flooring dropped their appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the Commerce Department's use of a country-wide adverse facts available rate in calculating the antidumping duty rate for the separate rate respondents in the 2016-17 administrative review of the AD order on multilayered wood flooring from China. The case will continue to be litigated by importers led by Galleher Corp., which filed their opening brief last week, arguing that the use of the AFA rate punishes the separate rate respondents for respondent Sino-maple's lack of cooperation and leads to an aberrational AD rate (see 2502050023). Counsel for Struxtur and Evolutions didn't respond to a request for comment (Fuson Jinlong Wooden Group Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1196).
The Commerce Department permissibly refused to offer exporter East Sea Seafoods Joint Stock Company separate rate status in the 2019-20 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on catfish from Vietnam, petitioner Catfish Farmers of America argued in a Feb. 10 brief supporting Commerce's remand results. The petitioner said that while the Court of International Trade relied on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in Yanghzou Bestpak Gifts & Crafts Co. v. U.S. to remand the issue, legal developments since Bestpak have called into question the relevance of the decision (Green Farms Seafood Joint Stock Company v. United States, CIT # 22-00092).
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).