The U.S. fined German software company SAP SE more than $200 million for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, saying it bribed government officials in South Africa, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia and Azerbaijan to secure business contracts. The company agreed to a nearly $100 million settlement with the SEC and faces a $118.8 million criminal penalty, along with a forfeiture, as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ.
The U.S. defended its right not to turn over parts of the administrative record in a case on the decision to add exporter Ninestar Corp. to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, saying that the record is protected by the "informer's privilege" or is "law-enforcement sensitive" (Ninestar Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).
Tire exporters Guizhou Tyre Co. and Aeolus Tyre Co. asked for 6,000 more words for their opening brief after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected their bid to submit two separate briefs. The companies noted that they received the government's consent and there's "good cause" to expand the word count (Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2163).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Tire Exporter's Challenge to Presumption of NME State Control Sunk by CAFC Case Law, Petitioner Says
The Commerce Department has not established an "irrebuttable presumption" of state control for exporters in nonmarket economies, antidumping duty petitioner the United Steelworkers labor union argued in a Jan. 5 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Pirelli Tyre Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2266).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Dec. 20-22 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
The U.S. said it hasn't made a decision on whether to proceed with an appeal of a case brought by exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group on the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China, it said in a third extension request for the filing of its opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government said its notice of appeal was "protective," and it needs more time to "complete and finalize" the process for determining whether to "authorize" the appeal (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-2245).
U.S. solar cell maker Auxin Solar and solar module designer Concept Clean Energy launched a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade on Dec. 29 to contest the Commerce Department's pause of antidumping and countervailing duties on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from Southeast Asian found to be circumventing the AD/CVD orders on these products from China (Auxin Solar v. U.S., CIT # 23-00274).
Commerce’s countervailing duty for a Moroccan phosphate fertilizer exporter was too low because it either ignored or underestimated several benefits, a domestic petitioner said Dec 28 in the Court of International Trade (The Mosaic Company v. U.S., CIT # 23-00246).