DOJ is increasingly prioritizing corporate enforcement against executives -- regardless of how high they rank -- and is more frequently looking to take those cases to trial, said Marshall Miller, principal associate deputy attorney general.

Six U.S. oil country tubular goods manufacturers -- Tenaris U.S., Vallourec Star, Borusan Pipe US, PTC Liberty Tubulars, Welded Tube US, and Axis Pipe and Tube -- have formed a new trade association. The U.S. OCTG Manufacturers Association elected Tenaris U.S. President Luca Zanotti chairman, and appointed Roger Schagrin, partner at Schagrin Associates, its general counsel, a Nov. 28 news release said.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission suggested that Congress should pass legislation requiring the U.S. Judicial Conference to "prepare an evaluation and guidance for U.S. courts" on the Chinese legal system to aid courts in "assessing recognition of Chinese judgments." In its 2023 Report to Congress, the commission said that the Judicial Conference's guidance also would cover "change of venue, choice of law, and forum non conveniens inquiries."

DOJ is looking to apply its recently revamped corporate enforcement principles “across the entire Department,” including in cases involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said during an event last week held by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics. Monaco said companies “should expect more to come on this topic” as DOJ extends its policies “beyond the criminal context to other enforcement resolutions -- from breaches of affirmative civil case settlements to violations of CFIUS mitigation agreements or orders.”

A series of opinions from the Court of International Trade concerning whether the U.S. can file a counterclaim in classification cases do "not seem to change the fundamentals of classification litigation," customs lawyer Lawrence Friedman of Barnes Richardson said in a blog post. If the opinions are sustained on appeal, potential government claims seeking a different classification than the one initially used at liquidation by CBP may just be moved "from the counterclaim bucket to the defense bucket," the post said.

Low-carbon steel blanks imported from China are covered by the scope of an antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof from China, the Commerce Department said in a Sept. 19 scope ruling.

Liquidation may not be final in cases where CBP is "acting at the behest of another agency," law firm Neville Peterson said in a Sept. 13 blog post commenting on the Court of International Trade's ruling in AM/NS Calvert v. U.S. In that decision, the trade court entries subject to Section 232 steel and aluminum duties may not be final, given that the case contests the applications of product-specific exclusions granted by the Commerce Department and not by CBP (see 2309070037).

The merger between law firms Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling will be completed by Oct. 13 following the voting process that is to begin on Sept. 28, the firms announced. Ahead of the vote, the firms said they successfully completed "a number of key transaction milestones," including financial and operational due diligence, antitrust clearance filings, and retirement and pension program modifications. Both are global law firms with varying practice areas, including international trade and financial sanctions.

The U.S. should push World Trade Organization members to "revisit what constitutes good and bad subsidies," which may help encourage transparency and improve "enforcement through incentives for compliance and penalties for noncompliance," the Council on Foreign Relations said in a new report.

Steel and aluminum importers should expect the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security to "conduct additional quantity certification reviews and more closely scrutinize the data points included in exclusion requests" following a Government Accountability Office report on the exclusion process, global firm Crowell & Moring said. The firm said importers could also face further scrutiny from CBP, who will be more closely examining Section 232 exclusion claims that are not properly filed.