The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York set a plea proceeding for former FBI agent Charles McGonigal in a case charging him with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia. Judge Jennifer Rearden set the Aug. 15 proceeding on word that McGonigal "may wish to enter" a guilty plea (U.S. v. Charles McGonigal, S.D.N.Y. # 23-00016).
Members of the trade bar interested in joining the Court of International Trade's Rules Advisory Committee should submit letters expressing that interest by Sept. 8, the court announced. The committee considers the court's rules and makes recommendations about potential changes in line with the "Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the statutes impacting the Court’s jurisdiction, and other developments that may affect the work of the Court." The group meets four times a year, alternating between New York City and Washington, D.C., and also meets in smaller groups as needed.
No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.
Parties in a suit over the Commerce Department's expedited countervailing duty review on softwood lumber disagreed on whether the Court of International Trade should tell Commerce to exclude four Canadian exporters from the CVD order following the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's order saying the agency has the authority to conduct the review. In a joint status report filed Aug. 7, the Canadian parties in the case, which include the Canadian government, said the court should tell Commerce to exclude the companies and tell CBP to stop collecting CVD cash deposits, while the petitioner said a joint status report is not the correct venue for the request (Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations v. U.S., CIT # 19-00122).
A former oil and commodities trader at Vitol Inc., Javier Aguilar Morales, was charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing Mexican officials to obtain and retain business for Vitol. According to the indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Aug. 3, Aguilar violated the FCPA via bribery and money laundering from 2017 to 2020 to keep business for Vitol with the Mexican state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and its subsidiary, PEMEX Procurement International (United States v. Javier Aguilar, S.D. Tex. #4:23-00335).
The Commerce Department stuck by its position that Germany's KAV program is de jure specific and can be countervailed as part of the countervailing duty investigation on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany. Submitting its remand results to the Court of International Trade Aug. 7, Commerce said that because the German government, through legislation, limited access to the program's relief to a "group" of enterprises, the eligibility criteria are vertical and satisfy the de jure specificity standard laid out in the statute (BGH Edelstahl Siegen v. U.S., CIT # 21-00080).
The Commerce Department stuck by its benchmark picks for the land program and the aluminum plate, sheet and strip program in a suit on the 2016-17 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on aluminum foil from China. Submitting its remand results to the Court of International Trade on Aug. 4, Commerce said Trade Data Monitor data on Harmonized System subheading 7606.12 was properly used as the benchmark for the aluminum plate program, and that a 2010 Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) report on Thailand was the proper land benchmark (Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00133).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an errata in its Royal Brush Manufacturing v. U.S. opinion. The court removed the word "not" from the sentence that originally read, "The government nonetheless argues that confidential business information cannot not be disclosed absent a statute or regulation authorizing a protective order." In the opinion, the appellate court said that CBP violated importer Royal Brush's due process rights by failing to provide it access to business confidential information in an Enforce and Protect Act proceeding (see 2307270038).
The Supreme Court of the U.S., in an Aug. 1 order, granted the government's bid for an additional month to reply to importer PrimeSource Building Products' petition for a writ of certiorari on President Donald Trump's expansion of Section 232 duties onto steel and aluminum "derivatives." The government's reply will now be due Sept. 25, instead of Aug. 24 as originally planned. The government said its heavy case load warranted the delay.