President-elect Donald Trump announced his plans to nominate Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden to be deputy secretary of agriculture. Vaden joined the court in 2020 after working in Trump's first administration as USDA's general counsel. Posting the announcement on Truth Social, the president-elect said that at the agency, Vaden "relocated and reorganized the Agencies that comprise the Department to better serve Rural America, and engaged in substantial regulatory reform."
The U.S. charged three international drug traffickers last week with conspiracy to import fentanyl and methamphetamine precursor chemicals and importing a fentanyl precursor chemical, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. The indictment brought charges against Xiang Gao, a Chinese national; Oleksandr Klochkov, a Ukrainian national; and Igors Kricfalusijs, a Latvian national.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Antidumping duty petitioner Coalition for Fair Trade in Shopping Bags and exporter Finieco Industria e Comercio de Embalagens dropped their lawsuits on the antidumping duty investigation on paper shopping bags from Portugal, filing a stipulation of dismissal on Dec. 23. The coalition argued that the Commerce Department failed to treat Finieco's fixed payments to sales employees as indirect selling expenses (see 2409120037) (Coalition for Fair Trade in Shopping Bags v. U.S., CIT # 24-00158) (Finieco Industria e Comercio de Embalagens v. U.S., CIT # 24-00160).
A suit on the 2020-22 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on common alloy aluminum sheet from Spain was reassigned on Dec. 19 from Judge Timothy Reif to Judge Mark Barnett. The suit was brought by exporter Compania Valenciana de Aluminio Baux and claims that the Commerce Department's self-developed "levels of trade" test doesn't comport with U.S. law, especially in light of the Supreme Court's decision eliminating deference to agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes (see 2412040058). Counsel for Compania Valenciana declined to comment on the change in judges (Compania Valenciana de Aluminio Baux, S.L.U. v. United States, CIT # 23-00259).
The Commerce Department erred in changing the date of sale for respondent Toyo Kohan Co.'s U.S. transactions in the 2022-23 review of the antidumping duty order on diffusion-annealed nickel-plated flat-rolled steel from Japan, the company said in a complaint at the Court of International Trade. The exporter said Commerce "did not justify" its change from using the date of invoice as the date of sale to using the shipment date from Japan as the date of sale (Toyo Kohan Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00261).
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) improperly rejected 63 Section 232 steel tariff exclusion requests filed by California-based importer Mirror Metals, the company argued in a Dec. 20 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Mirror Metals said that if BIS applied the standards laid out in its regulations, the "only reasonable conclusion" it could have drawn was that the company "cannot obtain the subject steel in the U.S. market in a sufficient quantity or quality, on a timely basis to replace the steel it currently imports" (Mirror Metals v. United States, CIT # 24-00260).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Importer Ideavillage Products Corp. on Dec. 19 voluntarily dismissed at the Court of International Trade its customs suit regarding the tariff classification of its shavers and replacement cutting heads. The company challenged CBP's classification of the goods under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8510.30.0000, dutiable at 4.2%, claiming they should be classified under subheading 8510.10.0000, free of duty. Counsel for Ideavillage declined to comment (Ideavillage Products Corp. v. United States, CIT # 22-00332).
The Commerce Department stuck with its determination in the 2021-22 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on mechanical tubing of carbon and alloy steel from Italy that exporter Dalmine and its Romanian input provider Silcotub shouldn't be collapsed (ArcelorMittal Tubular Products v. United States, CIT # 24-00039).