CBP unlawfully abused its authority by engaging in retaliation against employees of importer Eteros Technologies USA after the company succeeded at the Court of International Trade in overturning the agency's detention of its marijuana-related drug paraphernalia, Eteros alleged in a new complaint at the trade court (Eteros Technologies USA v. United States, CIT # 25-00036).
Nicholas Czajkowski, a former trade analyst for the Commerce Department, has joined Schagrin Associates, the firm announced. Czajkowski worked at Commerce for over 20 years, conducting various trade remedy investigations, administrative reviews and new shipper reviews.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 20-26:
After the Trump administration released a memo outlining the scope of trade action to be taken during his term, one thing became clear, according to a variety of trade attorneys: antidumping duty and countervailing duty rates are about to soar.
Dan Stirk, former chief counsel for litigation in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, has joined Picard Kentz as counsel in the international trade practice, the firm announced. Stirk served as an attorney-adviser at USTR for nearly 18 years, covering World Trade Organization and free trade agreement dispute settlement proceedings, compliance proceedings and arbitration, the firm said.
A resident of both India and New Jersey who operated jewelry companies in New York City was sentenced Jan. 23 to 30 months in prison for leading a scheme to evade customs duties on over $13.5 million of jewelry imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced. Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and operating and aiding the operation of an "unlicensed money transmitting business."
Three international trade attorneys, Sarah Sprinkle, Jared Cynamon and Marisa Littlefield, joined Sandler Travis, the firm announced. Sprinkle joins the firm as a member and co-lead of the trade remedies practice after most recently working as senior counsel at Akin Gump. Cynamon joins as an associate after conducting trade remedies work at the Commerce Department. Littlefield joins as a customs attorney associate after graduating from the American University Washington College of Law.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Jan. 13-19:
Chinese manufacturer Camel Group Co. took to the Court of International Trade last week to contest its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List, arguing that the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force "utterly disregarded, ignored and trampled" its due process rights in a "flawed and poorly executed process." The company said FLETF illicitly conducted the process in the shadows, refusing to offer it access to any of the evidence used against the company, and that the decision to deny its petition to be removed from the list wasn't backed by substantial evidence (Camel Group Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00022).
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) said comparability findings are coming by Sept. 1, 2025, for "all harvesting nations that did not submit an application for a comparability finding" and all harvesting nations the NMFS has already preliminarily said will be denied a comparability finding. The announcement came as part of a settlement of a lawsuit from three wildlife advocacy groups against the NMFS's failure to ban fish or fish products exported from fisheries that don't meet U.S. bycatch standards under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (Natural Resources Defense Council v. Gina Raimondo, CIT # 24-00148).