DOJ likely will continue expanding its cooperation with foreign governments in investigating and prosecuting Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, Miller & Chevalier lawyer John Davis said in an interview. After a year that saw DOJ cooperate with South Africa and Colombia for the first time, Davis said, the agency will seek to work with more Latin American and European nations on FCPA enforcement.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif heard oral argument Jan. 18 in a case concerning the 2019 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on mattresses from Vietnam. Parties discussed the Commerce Department’s reliance on incomplete records and public access to a surrogate’s financial information (Ashley Furniture Industries v. U.S., CIT # 21-00283).
End module side cover and cable tray connection brackets from India imported by Sigma aren't covered by antidumping and countervailing duties on Indian cold-rolled steel flat products, Commerce said in a Dec. 13 scope ruling. It said the products were excluded from the order because they had undergone enough further processing.
The antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China covers cabinets and vanities made from phragmites, a type of reed, the Commerce Department said in a Jan. 12 scope ruling that found merchandise exported by Nanjing Kayling subject to AD/CVD.
Expect new EU action at the World Trade Organization in 2024, four Akin attorneys said in a Jan. 23 blog poost. With the exceptions of 2023 and 2007, the EU has filed at least one complaint every year since 1995, and is expected to "go back on the offensive" by starting at least one or two WTO spats this year, the attorneys said.
The U.S. defended its use of Malaysian Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 4402.90.1000 to value antidumping duty respondents' carbonized material over basket category 4402.90, telling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit it permissibly selected the more specific heading as part of an AD review on activated carbon from China (Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2135).
The Court of International Trade on Jan. 16 vacated its judgment in a customs case brought by Jing Mei Automotive (USA) under the court's Rule 60(a), which allows the court to correct clerical mistakes or mistakes stemming from oversight or omission. The judgment denied Jing Mei's motion for summary judgment and addressed four different categories of the importer's car parts. The court's Jan. 16 order didn't identify the clerical error (Jing Mei Automotive (USA) v. United States, CIT # 13-00321).
The Commerce Department on Jan. 24 dropped exporter Hyundai Steel Co.'s countervailing duty rate to a de minimis mark on remand in a suit contesting the rate applicable to Hyundai's usage rights for the North Incheon Harbor in South Korea. The agency said at the Court of International Trade that it considered the exporter's "construction costs in the benefit calculation," though it disagreed that the construction costs should be considered at all (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 21-00304).
A South Korean aluminum foil importer filed suit at the Court of International Trade against an anti-circumvention inquiry that found multiple importers attempted to avoid antidumping duties on Chinese aluminum foil using intermediaries in South Korea (Hanon Systems Alabama v. U.S., CIT # 23-00269).