The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed part the Court of International Trade’s July 2010 dismissal of Ford’s request to liquidate and refund duties paid on ten reconciliation entries of imported Jaguar brand vehicles that Ford argued should have been deemed liquidated. In 2010, CIT had dismissed Ford’s claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and lack of controversy, and had declined to issue a judgment on other claims. CAFC reversed CIT’s jurisdiction ruling because CIT’s ruling was based on events that occurred after Ford filed its court complaint, reversed CIT’s dismissal for lack of controversy, and vacated CIT’s decision to dismiss other Ford claims.

A Hampton Roads-based multi-agency task force seized about 35 kilograms of cocaine at the Port of Norfolk in the past two weeks in separate drug smuggling ventures, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. On Aug. 4, the task force seized three kilograms of cocaine from a container vessel due into Hampton Roads. The seizure resulted in the arrest of two individuals, neither of whom were ship crewmembers, ICE said. The task force had already seized 32 kilograms of cocaine July 27, hidden in a cargo hold of a vessel arriving into the Port of Norfolk. ICE said it believes the cocaine, which has an estimated street value of $1 million, came from Colombia and was destined for Europe. None of the crewmembers from the ship involved in the July 27 seizure were suspected of being involved and no arrests were made.

The Court of International Trade delayed its decision in a case involving the International Trade Administration’s use of “zeroing” in administrative reviews, pending resolution of the appeal of CIT’s ruling in Union Steel v. U.S., currently before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Although plaintiffs and defendants opposed staying the case, which involves the final results of the 2009-10 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from India (A-533-840), CIT said the delay will serve the interest of judicial economy and will conserve the resources of the parties. According to CIT, neither plaintiffs nor defendant showed any harm that would have resulted from the stay.

The Court of International Trade denied CBP’s motion to reconsider its April dismissal of CBP’s attempt to recover penalties from defendant Nitek Electronics for misclassified entries of gas meter swivels and gas meter nuts from China that were subject to an antidumping duty order. In April, CIT had ruled that CBP failed to exhaust its administrative remedies because at the administrative stage CBP had alleged gross negligence, while before the court CBP alleged the lesser charge of negligence. This time, CIT found nothing new in CBP’s arguments for reconsideration. “A party’s disagreement with a ruling does not always equate to a ‘clear error’ warranting reconsideration,” CIT said. “More to the point, mere repetition of unsuccessful arguments is an improper use of Rule 59 and a needless delay to finality.”

Pfizer subsidiary Pfizer H.C.P. Corp. agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve an investigation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth LLC also reached settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission under which Pfizer Inc. agreed to pay more than $26.3 million, including interest, to resolve concerns involving the conduct of its subsidiaries. Wyeth, which had been acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2009, agreed to pay $18.8 million, including interest, to resolve concerns involving the conduct of Wyeth subsidiaries.

Antiques dealer David Hausman, 67, of New York City, pleaded guilty July 31 to obstruction of justice and creating false records in relation to illegal rhinoceros horn trafficking. The guilty plea was a result of an investigation which included U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigation. Hausman was arrested in February 2012 as part of "Operation Crash," and charged with Lacey Act violations.

The Court of International Trade remanded for the second time the final results of the 2006-07 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof from China (A-570-601). This time, CIT said there was nothing on the record that indicated Chinese plaintiff Peer Bearing Company-Changshan (which received a 92.84% AD rate in the original final results) was uncooperative, and therefore the ITA’s decision to apply an adverse facts available (AFA) AD rate of 60.95% on remand was unsupported. CIT also said the ITA’s decision not recalculate the surrogate values of three of plaintiff’s inputs was in violation of the first remand order, and reprimanded the ITA for failure to obey the court order.

The Court of International Trade finally affirmed the final results of 2004-05 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain pasta from Italy (A-475-818) on the International Trade Administration’s third try. After previous rulings had affirmed the ITA’s decision to use constructed value to calculate Atar S.r.l.’s AD rate instead of normal value because Atar had no viable home market or third-country comparison, CIT affirmed the ITA’s calculation of Atar’s profit rate and indirect selling expense rate, both of which are components of constructed value. Accordingly, Atar’s AD rate fell from the 18.18% final results rate to the 11.76% AD rate in this third remand redetermination.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the International Trade Commission’s determination of no violation of section 337 in a patent dispute between Nokia and InterDigital. The ITC determination in question was in the investigation of certain 3G mobile handsets and components thereof (337-TA-613), instituted in 2007. CAFC said the ITC misinterpreted two key claim terms when finding that Nokia’s products do not infringe InterDigital’s patents. The inventions in question operate within a system that uses Code Division Multiple Access (“CDMA”) to allow multiple cellphones (referred to as “subscriber units”) within a certain geographical area to use the same portion of the radio frequency spectrum simultaneously. Judge Newman wrote a dissenting opinion.

The Court of International Trade accepted the International Trade Administration’s rationale for zeroing in administrative reviews but not in investigations, but again remanded the ITA’s refusal to individually review a voluntary respondent in the 2008-09 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam (A-552-802). CIT said the standard employed by the ITA in refusing to individually investigate company Grobest & I-Mei Industrial (Vietnam) Co., Ltd., which may have been eligible for partial revocation if it had been found to have its third consecutive zero AD rate, would render part of the statute useless because it would set so low a bar as to allow the ITA to refuse to individually review voluntary respondents even when such a review would not impose an undue burden.