Exporter Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. and importer C&U Americas brought a suit to the Court of International Trade on Feb. 20 challenging the 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. The five-count complaint alleges a host of errors in the review, including on Commerce's use of partial adverse facts available (Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00025).
Exporter Nanjing Kaylang Co. filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade on Feb. 20 contesting a Commerce Department scope ruling that found Kaylang's products made from phragmites are subject to the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China (Nanjing Kaylang Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00045).
A World Trade Organization dispute panel on Feb. 20 found a U.S. attempt to revisit part of its countervailing duty laws as they pertain to subsidies on agricultural products violated the nation's WTO commitments. The panel said the U.S. failed to implement the findings of a previous dispute panel ruling, which said these same laws cut against the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in relation to a subsidy finding on ripe olives from Spain.
Exporter Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. filed a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade to contest a withhold release order on the company and CBP's rejection of the exporter's petition to be removed from the WRO. The company, which goes by Jiaxing Hoshine, said the WRO has done "significant and irreparable damage" to its business and reputation and that CBP has skirted the law by failing to disclose the evidence it used in issuing the WRO (Hoshine Silicon (Jia Xing) Industry Co. v. U.S., CIT # 24-00048).
Former Bureau of Industry and Security chief counsel Opher Shweiki, who left the agency earlier this month (see 2402140065), joined Akin Gump as a partner in its Washington office, the firm announced Feb. 20. Akin said Shweiki will add “further depth” to its export controls, sanctions, national security and global investigations team.
The U.S. transferred nearly $500,000 in "forfeited Russian funds" to Estonia in an attempt to provide aid to Ukraine, DOJ announced on Feb. 17. The move, announced at the Munich Security Conference by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Estonian Secretary General Tonis Saar, is "the first of its kind from the United States to a foreign ally for the express purpose of assisting Ukraine," DOJ said.
The U.S. will appeal a Court of International Trade case on the 2017 review of the countervailing duty order on solar cells from China, it said in a Feb. 16 notice of appeal. The government lost at the trade court with regard to its land benchmark calculation and use of adverse facts available pertaining to China's Export Buyer's Credit Program (see 2312200026).
The Court of International Trade on Feb. 20 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on corrosion-resistant steel products from South Korea. In its remand redetermination, Commerce lowered exporter Hyundai Steel Co.'s CVD rate to a de minimis mark after removing the subsidy attributed to the company's usage rights for the North Incheon Harbor in South Korea (see 2401240062) (Hyundai Steel Co. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00304).
Importer Trijicon's tritium-powered gun sights are "lamps" and not "apparatus," slotting them under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9405, the Court of International Trade ruled on Feb. 16. Judge Mark Barnett said the gun sights do not meet definition of "apparatus" put forward by either Trijicon or the government, who respectively defined the term as a set of materials or equipment and a complex device. The court instead found that the products "are readily classified as lamps," which are defined as "any of various devices for producing light."
The Court of International Trade on Feb. 20 rejected a Commerce Department scope ruling finding R210-S engines made by Chonging Rato Technology Co. fall within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc and parts thereof from China.