The Commerce Department will reexamine another antidumping duty proceeding on frozen shrimp from Vietnam, after the Court of International Trade remanded the final results of two 2011 new shipper reviews for IDI Corporation and Thien Ma Seafood Company (THIMCO). Both companies had received zero rates. As it had in an earlier challenge to an administrative and new shipper review (see 13052327), the court remanded for Commerce to reconsider its surrogate values used to calculate the value of fish waste and fish skin inputs for the respondents, as well as its selection of Bangladesh as the surrogate country.

The Court of International Trade rejected Marsan’s challenge to the 2009-2010 antidumping duty administrative review of pasta from Turkey (A-489-805), finding the company wasn’t entitled to a lower AD duty rate because of affiliation with another Turkish exporter. In the final results, Commerce had said a common officer serving on the board of another subsidiary of Birlik/Bellini’s parent company and Marsan’s board was not an “affiliated person” under AD duty law. Marsan was assigned the all others AD duty rate of 51.49 percent as a result. If Commerce had found differently on the affiliation issue, it would have received Birlik/Bellini's lower AD rate The court found the challenge deficient because the company didn’t demonstrate the board member actually exercised control over Marsan, it said.

A former U.S. Marine and Staff Sergeant in a U.S. Special Forces National Guard Unit was sentenced to 24 months in prison and three years of supervised release for smuggling weapons for export to China, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York. In violation of the Arms Export Control Act, Joseph Debose of North Carolina shipped semi-automatic handguns, rifles and shotguns to co-conspirators, who in turn transported them to be shipped to Chinese customers. The U.S. Attorney’s office said Debose is one of four individuals convicted of weapons trafficking and export offenses in connection with this case.

A Florida woman pleaded guilty to forging an official certificate to export merchandise containing an animal product, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Florida’s Southern District.

In a dispute over the price benchmarks the Commerce Department uses to value subsidy programs in countervailing duty proceedings, the Court of International Trade remanded the results of the original countervailing duty investigation on aluminum extrusions from China (C-570-968). Commerce had found government-associated companies had provided aluminum and land inputs to Chinese companies for below-market prices, or “less than adequate remuneration (LTAR),” which meant those inputs were countervailable subsidies. CIT said Commerce was correct in including import duties in the benchmark market price it used to judge whether aluminum inputs were provided for LTAR. The regulations require Commerce to do so, the court said. But Commerce’s comparison of a fully-developed Thai industrial park with undeveloped land received by respondent Zhongya went against the evidence on the record, the court said. CIT remanded for Commerce to reconsider.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected a test used by the Commerce Department to determine if items covered by antidumping duty orders, but included in non-subject sets, are subject to AD duties. But while it found fault with the particulars of the test Commerce used to see whether Target’s nails are included under the AD duty order on China, the appeals court reversed a 2012 Court of International Trade ruling that said Commerce wasn’t allowed to perform any test at all on the “mixed media items.” Instead, the appeals court put forward its own test for when this issue arises, both in this Target case and in future cases, and appealed to Commerce to clearly define its mixed media analysis procedures for future cases.

In a case on the tariff classification of Latitudes International Fragrance’s diffuser bottles, the Court of International Trade ruled July 17 that the product is a bottle for the conveyance of scented oil, rather than decorative glassware. Latitudes, a U.S. importer doing business as Maesa Home, argued the bottles are simple vessels bought for the scented oil and reeds they contain. The court agreed, finding the bottles’ decorative function was secondary.

Convicted arms trafficker and Georgian national Ioseb Kharabadze, 60, was deported on July 12 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations, according to ICE. Kharabadze was convicted in July 2007 for conspiring to smuggle surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank missile systems, 120mm mortar launchers and other high powered weapons from Europe into the U.S., ICE said. He was sentenced in March 2009 to 60 months for conspiring to traffic firearms and 48 months for brokering activities.

Muhaned Abbas Mohamed, 26, of Greensboro, N.C., was sentenced to 24 months in prison and three years of supervised release on July 16 for conspiring to smuggle goods from the U.S, according to a press release. Mohamed was also sentenced for conspiring to make a false and fictitious statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm from a licensed dealer, the press release said.

A Massachusetts man was charged June 25 in Connecticut U.S. District Court with importing counterfeit semiconductors from China and selling them to defense contractors, according to an indictment unsealed July 15. Peter Picone was charged with conspiring to traffic in counterfeit goods, conspiring to traffic in counterfeit military goods, trafficking in counterfeit goods, conspiring to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiring to commit money laundering. Picone faces up to 20 years in prison for some of the charges.