The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Importer Maple Leaf Marketing filed a stipulation of dismissal in its customs suit on the classification of boronized steel tubing. Before the dismissal, the case served as a forum for the government to argue that it could assert counterclaims in customs cases. The U.S. moved to redesignate its counterclaim as a defense, which the Court of International Trade granted after finding that nowhere in Congress' scheme on the classification of goods does the legislative body explicitly let the government assert a counterclaim challenging CBP's classification (see 2306140053). The original counterclaim said that the steel tubes, originally classified by CBP as duty-free U.S. goods returned after repairs, are subject to Section 301 tariffs and correctly classified as unfinished steel tubes (Maple Leaf Marketing v. United States, CIT # 20-03839).
CBP reversed its finding that four importers evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China on remand at the Court of International Trade. Submitting its remand results on March 20, CBP said that since the Commerce Department reversed its covered merchandise scope decision in a separate trade court case, the importers' goods no longer constitute "covered merchandise" and thus did not evade the AD/CVD orders (Far East American v. United States, CIT Consol. # 22-00213).
The Court of International Trade on March 20 denied U.S. company Deer Park Glycine's bid to consolidate its two cases before the trade court. One case is challenging the Commerce Department's scope ruling which excluded calcium glycinate from the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on glycine from India, Japan, Thailand and China, while the other contests Commerce's rejection of a second scope ruling request on the same product.
The Commerce Department released the final version of regulations on March 22 that will make various key changes in the administration of antidumping and countervailing duty regulations. The changes take effect April 24.
International trade attorney Kanzanira Thorington has moved from WilmerHale to King & Spalding, according to her LinkedIn page. Thorington initially joined WilmerHale in 2022 after clerking at the Court of International Trade. She joins King & Spalding in Washington as an associate.
Mexican national Abraham Cigarroa Cervantes, former finance director of waste management firm Stericycle's Latin American wing, was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for helping bribe officials in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, DOJ announced March 19.
Mosaic tile importer Akua Mosaics and its president, Kenneth Fleming, pleaded guilty on March 19 to conspiring to smuggle Chinese-made porcelain mosaic tiles into the U.S., the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Puerto Rico announced.
Canadian national Klaus Pflugbeil, a resident of China, was arrested March 19 for allegedly conspiring to send an unnamed U.S. electric vehicle company's trade secrets to "undercover law enforcement officers," DOJ announced. Pflugbeil allegedly conspired with Chinese national Yilong Shao to send the trade secrets. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 20 granted Indian exporter Kumar Industries' motion to voluntarily dismiss its appeal of an antidumping duty case. Kumar had appealed a decision sustaining the Commerce Department's assignment of a 13.61% adverse facts available AD rate to the exporter based on its "inadequate explanations" regarding one of its partners' ownership interests in two unnamed companies (see 2311270005). The rate came as part of the first review of the AD order on glycine from India, which found that Kumar prevented Commerce from conducting a proper affiliate analysis. Kumar withdrew the appeal last month, saying it "elected not to further pursue its appeal" (see 2402260033) (Kumar Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1293).