A present and a former officer with the Niagara Regional Police Service and an associate are in custody in Canada after an investigation of a cheese smuggling scheme, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Scott Heron, 39, Casey Langelaan, 48, and Bernie Pollino, 44, all of Fort Erie, Ontario, were charged for smuggling goods, evasion of duties and related charges in Canada, following their Sept. 27 arrest. Heron, a member of the NRP, was suspended as the result of this investigation. At the time of the alleged violations, Langelaan was also a member of the NRP, but is no longer with the force. The allegations involve purchasing cases of cheese and other food items in the U.S. and transporting them into Canada without declaring the items or paying duty. Investigators said there was a significant financial gain to be made in the cheese smuggling due to the duty on cheese and dairy products imported from the U.S., which ranged from 250-400 percent. Investigators said $200,000 worth of cheese and other products were purchased and distributed for an estimated profit of over $165,000.

The U.S. government appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit a ruling that affirmed its inclusion of nails in kits within the antidumping duty order on steel nails from China (A-570-909). The International Trade Administration’s original determination that Target Corporation’s nails in home tool kits were not subject to the order was remanded twice by the Court of International Trade, which found that the ITA applied contradictory approaches in scope determinations for items included in kits. The ITA finally reversed its determination and included the nails in scope, and CIT affirmed in July.

Two trade associations and an organic foods company filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for Colorado to block implementation of the World Trade Organization’s recent ruling against U.S. Country of Origin Labeling Requirements (COOL), charging that U.S. law supersedes any WTO rulings that are contrary to U.S. law. Plaintiffs Made in the U.S.A. foundation, Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund of the United Stockgrowers Association (R-CALF USA), and Melonhead LLC argued that a provision in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which implements the WTO agreement that the COOL requirements were found to have violated, says that WTO rulings have no effect if inconsistent with U.S. law.

Rambus appealed an International Trade Commission determination finding no violation of Section 337 and terminating the investigation on its patent claims on certain semiconductor chips and products containing same (337-TA-753). SI Corporation and STMicroelectronics, along with their customers Asustek and Asus, Cisco Systems, Garmin International, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, and Seagate Technology were the only respondents remaining in the investigation, which had originally included Freescale, Broadcom, Mediatek, and NVIDIA. (See ITT’s Online Archives 12073022 for summary of the ITC’s determination.)

Okeechobee, Fla., resident David Feltenberger was sentenced to 90 days in prison and 90 days of home confinement with electronic monitoring, to be followed by three years of supervised released, a $20,000.00 fine, and 250 hours of community service on charges of exporting turtles to China, the Justice Department said. Feltenberger also agreed to forfeit the illegal catch of turtles and a commercial vehicle used to transport the turtles. He had pleaded guilty July 16. Feltenberger owned a turtle aquaculture facility known as the Big Lake Fish Farm II and possessed an FWCC Turtle Aquaculture Brood Stock Collection Permit. Feltenberger's permit allowed him to collect over 15,000 turtles of various species from the wild for use as brood stock. However, in violation of his FWCC Permit, Feltenberger purchased wild-caught turtles and repeatedly shipped the live turtles to China, in violation of the Lacey Act, the Justice Department said.

Tyco International agreed to pay more than $26 million to settle charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Violations. Subsidiaries of the Switzerland-based manufacturer perpetuated schemes that typically involved payments of fake “commissions” or the use of third-party agents to funnel money improperly to obtain lucrative contracts, the Securities and Exchange Commission alleged. $13.68 million of the total went to the Department of Justice as part of a non-prosecution agreement to settle criminal charges stemming from the alleged violations, which include misstated books and records, failure to maintain internal controls, and violations of FCPA anti-bribery provisions.

Motorola Mobility appealed an Aug. 29 International Trade Commission determination of no violation of Section 337 by imports of Apple iPhones. In its determination, the ITC also decided to further consider an aspect of the administrative law judge’s initial determination in the investigation of certain wireless communication devices, portable music and data processing devices, computers and components thereof (337-TA-745). The case is one of two highlighted by the Federal Trade Commission in comments against issuance of exclusion orders in favor of standard essential patents. Motorola Mobility is owned by Google.

The 17th Judicial Conference of the Court of International Trade will be Dec. 3 at the in Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York, N.Y., CIT said. Morning breakout sessions will include “Overzealous and Less than Zealous Representation: The Ethical Risks of Playing the Waiting Game,” and “Will the Real Country of Origin Please Stand Up?” In the afternoon, breakout sessions will cover “Getting to Judgment and Beyond: Challenges in Customs Litigation,” and “Next Frontier in Trade Remedy Litigation: Point/Counterpoint.” CIT Chief Judge Donald Pogue will give opening and closing remarks. The agenda for the conference is available here. The registration form is available here.

In a challenge of the effective date of a partial revocation for certain types of nails that resulted from a changed circumstances review of the antidumping duty order on certain steel nails from China (A-570-909), the Court of International Trade denied plaintiff Itochu’s motion for an earlier effective date because it didn’t exhaust its administrative remedies. Although Itochu, a U.S. importer of nails from China, argued for the earlier effective date before the preliminary determination was issued, it did not file comments on the preliminary determination itself.

The Court of International Trade remanded the final results of the 2009-10 antidumping administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-552-802) for several reasons, including the International Trade Administration’s use of surrogate values, wage rate calculations, financial statements, decision not to calculate combination AD rates, and zeroing.