World Trade Organization members at the March 20-22 meeting of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee reviewed the agreement on the application of SPS measures and "addressed a high number of trade concerns," the WTO said.
The Council of the EU on March 27 appointed Stephane Gervasoni and Dean Spielmann, respectively, a judge and advocate-general to the EU Court of Justice, the council announced. Gervasoni previously served on the EU General Court; Spielman is a past president of the European Court of Human Rights. The council also reappointed Thomas von Danwitz and Ineta Ziemele judges and Jean Richard de la Tour an advocate-general of the Court of Justice. All appointments were issued under the court's 2024 partial renewal, for terms running Oct. 7, 2024, through Oct. 6, 2030.
The National Courts Building -- home of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit -- didn't receive U.S. Postal Service mail March 20-22. As a result, the court clarified in a March 26 notice that deadlines for nonelectronic filings and submission due March 20-22 and submitted via mail "will be deemed as timely filed if received on Monday, March 25, 2024. All other deadlines are unaffected."
The U.S. filed a civil forfeiture suit March 26 in a New York district court against two New York City apartments purchased for $14 million with the "proceeds from an international corruption scheme," DOJ announced. The apartments are subject to forfeiture due to "violations of federal money laundering statutes," the department said.
The International Trade Commission is proposing to permanently adopt its COVID-19 era regulation that waived the need for paper filings of confidential and public documents in safeguard, antidumping and countervailing duty, and Section 337 proceedings. In a proposed rule released March 28, the ITC, at the request of the ITC Trial Lawyers Association and the Customs and International Trade Bar Association, proposed eliminating the requirement for paper copy submissions, except for complaints and complaint supplements and amendments in Section 337 cases. The regulation also removes "gender-specific language" found in the ITC's rules.
The Court of International Trade on March 26 ordered importer Lutron Electronics Co. to submit a supplemental brief further explaining its demand for redacted information in CBP's internal documents as part of a customs suit on the company's window shade machines. Judge Richard Eaton said Lutron must reconcile its motion to compel the documents with the holdings from Ford Motor Co. v. U.S., a 2010 U.S. Court of Federal Claims decision (Lutron Electronics Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00264).
The Commerce Department on March 26 set a higher antidumping duty rate for exporter Ningbo Master International Trade in the investigation on beer kegs from China after electing on remand to use Brazilian wage data for the surrogate labor value. The exporter's rate. if sustained by the Court of International Trade, would rise from a de minimis mark to 4.23%, lifting the separate rate applicants' AD mark with it by an equal amount (New American Keg v. United States, CIT # 20-00008).
A World Trade Organization dispute panel found that certain elements of Australian antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings on wind towers, deep drawn stainless steel sinks and railway wheels from China violate WTO commitments. Issuing its findings March 26, the panel recommended that Australia bring its measures into conformity with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.
Zhiwei "Allen" Liao was sentenced to 51 months in prison and ordered to pay $120,370 for his role in an "international conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit Apple products," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California announced March 25. He also was ordered to forfeit two residences and 200 Apple devices.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade: