Singapore Customs arrested two Singaporean nationals Jan. 23 following a raid that discovered a total of 500 cartons of duty-unpaid cigarettes, the customs agency said. Customs officers conducted the operation in an industrial building around Eunos Avenue 3 after keeping watch on a unit in the building "that was suspected to be used for storing duty-unpaid cigarettes." The total amount of Goods and Services tax evaded by the two men totaled $68,320 and $5,100 (in Singapore dollars), respectively. The pair were charged in court on Jan. 25, Singapore Customs said.

Europe's top court, the European Court of Justice, annulled an EU General Court ruling which struck down the European Commission's antidumping duties on imports of certain seamless pipes and tubes of iron (other than cast iron) or steel (other than stainless steel) from China. The Jan. 20 decision from the ECJ said that the General Court was wrong to hold that the commission was required to consider the effects of the dumped imports of every product type at issue sold by the industry for that product. The ECJ further ruled that the General Court erred when it required the commission to examine the extent to which the prices of the 17 product types may have contributed to the fall in the prices of the sampled EU producers. The decision sends the case back to the General Court, where litigation will resume over the fate of the antidumping duties.

Vietnam's Quang Nam Customs Department will prosecute importer H.T.P Import & Export Co. for smuggling 88 tons of refined sugar into the Thang Binh district, the state-run CustomsNews said Jan. 15. A shipment of 200 tons of refined Thai sugar was detected in July in eight containers brought in by H.T.P and registered at Dien Nam-Dien Ngoc Industrial Park Customs Branch, the report said. Following an investigation, the H.T.P director said the company didn't sell 88 of the 200 tons of imported sugar and had borrowed the shipment of 200 tons of sugar to pay debts it owed to the P.H.H Trading Co., CustomsNews said. However, the investigating customs unit found that the amount at which the 88 tons were sold was below its value and thus amounted to smuggling. As a result, the Quang Nam Customs Department director transferred the case to the Quang Nam Provincial Police Investigation Agency for criminal prosecution.

A European Union law holding that entities cannot comply with the requirements in the laws of a third country applies even in the absence of an order to comply with the third country's laws, the European Court of Justice said in a December 2021 judgment. However, an EU company can terminate contracts with a person or entity subject to U.S. sanctions without giving reasons for such termination or without authorization from the European Commission, a summary of the judgment said. But, the European high court said the burden of proof is on the party terminating the contract to show it nixed the contract for a reason other than compliance with the third country laws.

Vietnam will prosecute a case involving goods and currency illegally transported across the Laos-Vietnam border, the state-run CustomsNews reported, according to an unofficial translation. Lao Bao Border Gate Customs Branch authorities inspected a vehicle and found two packages of goods, including $10,000 in cash, and over 1,700 grams of gold and 2,180 grams of silver with a total value of around $132,000. The customs branch transferred the case to Huong Hoa District Police, which will carry out the prosecution.

Vietnam Customs initiated criminal prosecution against a furniture importer for trading banned goods at the Cat Lai Port, the state-run CustomsNews site reported.The 1st zone Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch started prosecution against Duy Phuong Anh Trading and Forwarding Services Co. for importing used furniture after declaring it new, the report said. The company registered a declaration to bring in 49 items of furniture, but after physical inspection it became clear that the items were used dining tables, display cabinets, clocks, tables and chairs, CustomsNews said. The incorrect declaration violated Vietnamese law for the goods valued at nearly $11,000, the report said. A Duy Phuong Anh spokesperson said that when the company company ordered the goods it didn't know that they were used goods.

The European Union General Court dropped the sanctions listing of former Ukrainian Minister of Revenue and Taxes Oleksandr Viktorovych Klymenko, annulling actions in March maintaining the designation, according to an unofficial translation. The ruling marks the fifth of its kind. The European Council used Ukraine's investigation of Klymenko for the embezzlement of public funds as the basis for the sanctions listing. The General Court, as it has done in the previous four rulings, said that the council hadn't adequately identified that the investigating judge had respected Klymenko's rights of defense or that the proceedings were being carried out in a reasonable time. This decision ends the matter because the Council didn't renew the sanctions listing in September 2021, an action that occurred after Klymenko in April 2021 initiated the latest petition for annulment of his listing.

Aluminum industry trade group European Aluminum, filed two lawsuits with the European Union General Court to challenge the nine-month suspension of the antidumping duties on aluminum flat-rolled products from China, the trade association said in a Dec. 20 press release. The group called the suspension "unjustified" and pointed to the alleged "damaging impact" such a move can have on the European industry. The first case challenges the suspension decision from the European Commission itself, while the second goes after the non-collection of the provisional antidumping duties that were already imposed at the time of the suspension.

The European Council appointed nine judges to the European Union Court of Justice General Court, the council said in a Dec. 21 news release. Six -- Lauri Madise and Iko Nomm of Estonia, Anna Marcoulli and Savvas Papasavvas of Cyprus, and Tuula Pynna and Heikki Kanninen of Finland -- were reappointed for a term running Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2028. Damjan Kukovec of Slovenia was appointed for a tenure running from the date of entry into force of the appointing decision until Aug. 31, 2025; the appointment is part of a phased addition of judges to the General Court that began in September 2019. Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos of Greece and Suzanne Kingston of Ireland were appointed for terms running until Aug. 31, 2022, and Aug. 31, 2025, respectively; the appointments fill unexpired terms of judges who received appointments to the Court of Justice.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered Bahrain to pay more than $270 million in legal fees and damages to Iranian state-owned Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, The Washington Post reported. The win for the Iranian banks came after Bahrain's forced closure of Future Bank in 2015, the result of allegations that the institution facilitated money laundering and the evasion of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. A three-arbitrator panel at the court held that Bahrain violated its own banking policies, motivated primarily by a political animus toward Iran. Future Bank, established in Bahrain in 2004 with the backing of the two Iranian banks, was forced to close its doors a few weeks after the Iran nuclear agreement was signed by Iran and the U.S, along with five other world power countries.