The Court of International Trade on Dec. 8 denied the government's motion to dismiss Chinese printer cartridge exporter Ninestar's suit against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List following a court order finding that CIT has the jurisdiction to hear challenges to inclusion on the UFLPA Entity List. Judge Gary Katzmann said the motion was moot, denying it without prejudice to a renewed motion to dismiss after Ninestar's filing of its amended complaint (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
Antidumping duty petitioner Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood will appeal an October Court of International Trade decision sustaining the Commerce Department's fifth remand results in the AD investigation on hardwood plywood products from China. The court upheld Commerce'se separate rate calculation along with its decisions to exclude Jiangyang Wood and Dehua TB from the AD order, and to include Sanfortune Wood and Longyuan Wood within the order (see 2310100045). As stated in the notice of appeal, the coalition will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Linyi Chengen Import and Export Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 18-00002).
The Commerce Department stuck by its decision to apply to countervailing duty respondent The Ancientree Cabinet Co. adverse facts available related to its alleged receipt of benefits under China's Export Buyer's Credit Program. In Dec. 6 remand results to the Court of International Trade, Commerce said it tried to verify Ancientree's submissions regarding its customers' non-use of the EBCP but was unable to verify key information regarding non-use, leading to the continued AFA rate for the exporter (Dalian Meisen Woodworking Co. v. United States, CIT # 20-00110).
The Commerce Department reverted to a previously used land benchmark calculation for its 2017 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on solar cells from China. The court previously had sent back the land benchmark formula for violating the scope of an earlier remand order, telling Commerce to use the calculation from its first remand, in which the agency used a 2010 Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) land report to set the benchmark (see 2311170034) (Risen Energy Co. v. U.S., CIT # 20-03912).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department's finding that calcium glycinate is outside the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on glycine from India, Japan, Thailand and China was not backed by substantial evidence, AD/CVD petitioner GEO Specialty Chemicals argued in a Dec. 7 complaint at the Court of International Trade (GEO Specialty Chemicals v. United States, CIT # 23-00238).
Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit during Dec. 7 oral arguments sharply questioned importer Rimco's arguments that it didn't need to raise an Eighth Amendment challenge to its adverse facts available rate administratively at the Commerce Department before challenging it in court (Rimco v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2079).
The Court of International Trade doesn't have jurisdiction to hear importer Southern Cross Seafoods' challenge to the National Marine Fisheries Service's rejection of its application for preapproval to import Chilean sea bass, the court ruled Dec. 7. Judge Timothy Reif said that the agency's decision, issued under the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Convention Act of 1984 (AMLRCA), doesn't constitute an "embargo or other quantitative restriction," barring jurisdiction under Section 1581(i), the court's "residual" jurisdiction.
Robert Wise, a New York-based lawyer who helped manage luxury properties for sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, was sentenced Dec. 5 to one year of house arrest followed by one year of probation. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil also levied a $100,000 fine against the lawyer, to be paid out in $8,333.33 monthly installments over the next year.
The U.S. charged Hans Maria De Geetere, a Belgian national, in two separate indictments for allegedly helping to illegally export "military-grade technology" from the U.S. to end-users in China and Russia, DOJ said. Along with the unsealing of the indictments in the U.S. district courts for the Eastern District of Texas and the District of Oregon, DOJ said the Belgian government arrested De Geetere, and others, and executed search warrants as part of the investigation (United States v. Hans De Geetere, E.D. Tex. # 4:19-cr-00207) (United States v. Hans De Geetere, D. Ore. # 3:23-cr-00374).