Jacob Kopnick

Importer Amini Innovation Corp. filed a stipulation of dismissal Nov. 6 in its challenge to the Commerce Department's scope ruling that found Amini's upholstered furniture was subject to the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China. Amini argued in its suit that its goods were not subject to the order because they differ from the in-scope furniture in terms of the products' physical characteristics, expectations of ultimate purchasers, ultimate use, channels of trade and manner in which they were advertised (see 2305250043) (Amini Innovation Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00090).

Importer Tempo Global Resources filed a stipulation of dismissal on Nov. 6 in its case on President Donald Trump's expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum duties onto "derivative" products, after the Supreme Court declined to hear another case challenging the same presidential action. The Court of International Trade stayed Tempo Global's case in August pending the high court's resolution of the separate Section 232 case, PrimeSource Building Products v. U.S. (see 2308080024). The Supreme Court rejected PrimeSource's request for review at the end of October, despite the company's claims that the case could allow the court to decide how separation-of-powers principles apply to statutory interpretations delegating vast legislative power to the executive branch (see 2310300020) (Tempo Global Resources v. United States, CIT # 20-00066).

The U.S. addressed all three of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's concerns regarding the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test to find "masked" dumping in antidumping duty proceedings, the government told the appellate court. Submitting its reply brief on Nov. 6 in the lead case on Commerce's use of the test, the U.S. claimed that data sets with non-normal distribution "do not inevitably lead to inaccurate results," the ratio test used as part of its differential pricing analysis accounts for data sets with small amounts of numbers and the test runs effectively involving data sets with small variance (Stupp Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1663).

The U.S. and importer Fanuc Robotics America have "reached an agreement in principle" on how to classify all but two models of robots at issue in the the importer's case at the Court of International Trade. Submitting a joint status report on Nov. 3, the parties said that the classification of the remaining two models is "taking the parties much longer than anticipated" due to the age of the models and the retirement of the national import specialist who "assisted with the review of the technical information" in the case (Fanuc Robotics America v. U.S., CIT # 12-00052).

Self-powered, radioluminescent light sources fueled by tritium that importer Trijicon uses to illuminate gun sights are properly classified as "lamps" under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9405 "not elsewhere specified or included," the U.S. argued in a cross motion for summary judgment at the Court of International Trade. The common meaning of the term "lamp," derived from "lexicographic sources and caselaw," shows this to be true, but it's really Trijicon's own communications with its supplier, workers, customers and chief regulator agreeing with this point that win the day for the government, the brief said (Trijicon v. United States, CIT # 22-00040).

The Commerce Department's decision not to give the South Korean government a chance to submit data from the Korean Electric Power Corporation as part of the agency's analysis of the provision of electricity for less than adequate remuneration was not backed by substantial evidence, exporter Hyundai Steel Co. argued (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00211).

The Commerce Department added another respondent to the 2016-17 review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the agency couldn't limit the review to one mandatory respondent. Tapping exporter Kenda Rubber (China) Co. in its remand results, Commerce calculated an 18.15% dumping margin for the exporter, also leading to a recalculation of the separate AD rate, which now sits at 41.36%, down from 64.57%. The China-wide rate held steady at 87.99% (YC Rubber Co. (North America) v. United States, CIT # 19-000069).

Debevoise & Plimpton appointed litigation partners Helen Cantwell and David O'Neil co-chairs of the White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group following the end of Bruce Yannett's tenure as chair, the firm announced. Cantwell is a former assistant U.S. attorney and a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit. O'Neil, a former DOJ official, centers his practice on matters involving corporate malfeasance, cybercrime, fraud and money laundering, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, healthcare fraud and securities fraud, the firm said.

The World Trade Organization on Oct. 31 launched an import licensing portal to allow members to draft and submit notifications online. The platform, released during the Committee on Import Licensing Procedures' Oct. 31 meeting, will provide members an "improved database of all import licensing procedures" of WTO countries, allowing members to search by country, product and legislation. Members can assign different levels of access to national authorities to draft, edit or submit their notifications, as well as use the portal to communicate and swap draft notifications and comments with the WTO Secretariat. During the committee meeting, members also reviewed 42 notifications of import licenses, WTO said.

The World Trade Organization said its working group on food security is aiming for the end of November to reach consensus on a final set of recommendations for least-developed countries (LDCs) and net food-importing developing countries (NFIDCs). During the working group's Oct. 31 meeting, participating members revised a report from the group's coordinator, Norway's Kjetil Tysdal, which covers four areas: "access to international food markets, financing of food imports, agricultural and production resilience of LDCs and NFIDCs, and horizontal, cross-cutting issues," the WTO said. Tysdal said he will make further revisions in the "coming days," noting the final meeting is set for Nov. 13, when the group is expected to finalize its recommendations for the full Committee on Agriculture's approval. The committee will meet Nov. 27-29.