The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 15-21:

The Justice Department failed to meet the legal requirement for a stay of the Court of International Trade's injunction against the importation of fish and shellfish caught in Mexican fisheries using gillnets (see 1807260039), CIT said in an Oct. 22 ruling. The decision is part of a lawsuit over protecting the endangered vaquita porpoise. "In short, Congress determined that when a marine mammal is endangered -- such as the vaquita is here -- because of foreign fishing technologies, targeted embargoes on fish caught using those technologies are the remedies to be imposed," CIT Judge Gary Katzmann said. "The Government’s regulatory preferences do not override this legislative command."

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 8-14:

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions highlighted U.S. efforts to combat illegal wildlife trade, including through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, during an Oct. 11 speech at the London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference. "We are tackling this problem head-on in our trade agreements," he said, according to prepared remarks. The new NAFTA "includes the strongest provisions to combat wildlife trafficking of any trade agreement in history," he said. The Justice Department will also be convening an "expert forum to focus on countering the illegal wildlife trade," Sessions said. He also spoke of the continued importance of the Lacey Act, which "remains among our nation’s most powerful weapons in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade."

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 1-7:

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 24-30:

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 1 issued yet another decision faulting the Commerce Department’s inclusion of masonry anchors under antidumping and countervailing duty orders on steel nails from several countries. As it did in two other recent decisions (see 1805290053 and 1809240016), the court held that, regardless of a nail-like steel pin component, Midwest Fastener’s zinc and nylon anchors are unitary articles of commerce that together do not function like nails and are not understood commercially to be nails. Midwest Fastener is challenging a scope ruling issued by Commerce in 2017 that found its zinc and nylon masonry anchors subject to AD/CV duties on steel nails from Vietnam. CIT ordered Commerce to file its redetermination within 90 days.

The Court of International Trade again sent back a Commerce Department scope ruling finding mass spectrometer parts subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, finding in an Oct. 1 decision that the agency did not justify its determination that Agilent’s mass filter radiators are not finished heat sinks exempt from AD/CV duties.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 17-23:

Zinc and nylon masonry anchors imported by Simpson Strong-Tie are not covered by antidumping duties on steel nails from China, the Court of International Trade said in a Sept. 21 decision. As it recently did in a separate case involving anchors Commerce had ruled were subject to AD duties on nails from Vietnam (see 1805290053), CIT held that anchors are not commonly considered to be nails, and the inclusion of a nail inside the masonry anchor is irrelevant because the entire anchor should be considered a unitary article of commerce. Unlike nails, which are inserted by impact, masonry anchors are secured by way of a mechanical wedging effect caused by the expansion of the anchor, CIT said. Commerce had in a March 2017 scope ruling found Simpson’s masonry anchors covered by the AD duty order (see 1703280025). That scope ruling was one of several now in question wherein Commerce found masonry anchors are nails (see 1706200062, 1712190067 and 1804030044).