Exporters Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. and Carbon Activated Corp. will appeal a July Court of International Trade decision upholding the Commerce Department's surrogate value picks for five inputs in an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China (see 2307240049). The five inputs are carbonized material, coal tar, hydrochloric acid, steam and bituminous coal. Per the notice of appeal, the exporters will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the opinion, the trade court also sustained the valuation of ocean freight costs, calculation of surrogate financial ratios and acceptance of respondent Datong Juqiang Activated Carbon Co.'s reporting of its bituminous coal consumption (Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 22-00017).
The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 19 opinion said the Commerce Department properly allowed respondent Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. to supplement its questionnaire response on remand by providing additional information pertaining to service-related revenues and expenses. Judge Mark Barnett said the supplement was permitted pursuant to a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision, which said that Hyundai should have been given the chance to supplement the record and that Commerce's use of partial adverse facts available was "unsupported by substantial evidence."
The International Trade Commission failed to support its "central" underselling analysis as part of the injury investigation on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Sept. 19 opinion. Judge Stephen Vaden said that since the commission's underselling theory "undergirds" the remaining statutory considerations in the proceeding -- volume, price and impact -- the ITC must revisit its findings on these factors as well should it continue to find that the imports were undersold. The underselling theory "contaminat[ed]" these remaining findings, the opinion said.
The World Trade Organization on Sept. 15 released a new publication covering export controls. The report looks at "how WTO members have used different international agreements" beyond the trade body as grounds to set export regulations to support initiatives in "environmental protection, hazardous waste management, weapons control and combating illegal drugs trade."
The EU General Court's Grand Chamber on Sept. 13 rejected the Venezuelan government's challenge of the EU's Venezuela sanctions regime. The court said the European Council "relied on credible and reliable information" to assess the situation in Venezuela, which included "brutal repression" by the government. The court also said Venezuelan reports showing its government prosecuted these human rights abuses weren't enough to reveal a "manifest error" in the council's decision. The sanctions regime itself didn't violate international law, the court added, nor was it an illegal countermeasure because the sanctions weren't meant to be a reaction to an "internationally wrongful act imputable" to the Venezuelan government.
Liquidation may not be final in cases where CBP is "acting at the behest of another agency," law firm Neville Peterson said in a Sept. 13 blog post commenting on the Court of International Trade's ruling in AM/NS Calvert v. U.S. In that decision, the trade court entries subject to Section 232 steel and aluminum duties may not be final, given that the case contests the applications of product-specific exclusions granted by the Commerce Department and not by CBP (see 2309070037).
The merger between law firms Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling will be completed by Oct. 13 following the voting process that is to begin on Sept. 28, the firms announced. Ahead of the vote, the firms said they successfully completed "a number of key transaction milestones," including financial and operational due diligence, antitrust clearance filings, and retirement and pension program modifications. Both are global law firms with varying practice areas, including international trade and financial sanctions.
No lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade.
The classification of gun sight inserts that use tritium for powerless illumination in low light conditions are properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 9022 under the first General Rule of Interpretation (GRI), importer Trijicon argued in a Sept. 15 motion for summary judgment at the Court of International Trade (Trijicon v. United States, CIT # 22-00040).
Marble importer Stoneline Group filed suit in a New York federal court against Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. for breach of contract regarding an insurance policy covering a large shipment of tumbled beige marble stone from Turkey. Filing a complaint on Sept. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Stoneline said Liberty owes it nearly $6.2 million for all the costs it incurred shipping the goods from Turkey to Florida, then re-exporting the products to the Dominican Republic after it found the shipment was contaminated with pests (Stoneline Group v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., S.D.N.Y. #23-08115).