On January 24, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a second video on the conviction of a Mexican importer who was sentenced to 70 months in prison and a $7.8 million fine for the illegal transshipment through Mexico of Chinese-origin wire hangers subject to antidumping (AD) duties. By falsely claiming that the hangers were NAFTA-originating, the importer avoided the high AD duties and paid a zero or low NAFTA duty instead. (See ITT's Online Archives 11102646 for summary of CBP's first video, posted on 08/29/11.)

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Camp (R-MI) has issued a statement welcoming the decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to grant an extension for filing a rehearing request in the ongoing litigation about the application of the countervailing duty laws to non-market economies (NMEs) such as China. Camp stated that the Administration must pursue all available legal avenues to overturn the underlying decision, which he believes was wrongly decided.

Domestic manufacturers grouped together in 2005 to file an antidumping duty petition against diamond sawblade imports from Korea and China, and later successfully challenged a determination by the International Trade Commission that their industry was not threatened with injury by such imports.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York has announced that Richard Phillips pleaded guilty on January 18, 2012 to attempting to export carbon fiber to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. When sentenced, Phillips faces a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment.

Domestic furniture producers Ethan Allen Global, Inc. and Ethan Allen Operations, Inc. sued to gain a share of duties collected under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Act of 2000 (“Byrd Amendment,” or “CDSOA“), but the court dismissed their complaints.

On January 20, 2011, the Justice Department announced that Rudolf Cheung has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act in connection with the unlawful export of 55 military antennae from the U.S. to Singapore and Hong Kong.

In the August 2006 - July 2007 AD administrative review of polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand, the International Trade Administration assigned an adverse rate of 122.88% to KYD Inc., an importer of bags produced by two uncooperative Thai producers. The Court of International Trade twice remanded the rate calculation to the ITA, holding that the rate was not corroborated, supported by evidence, or relevant to KYD’s imports in the period of review, and noting that even for uncooperative respondents, the agency is still constrained by “commercial reality.”

Domestic producer of antifriction bearings (AFBs) Schaeffler Group USA, Inc. brought legal actions seeking a share of duties collected under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Act of 2000 (Byrd Amendment, or CDSOA). In the 1988 investigation by the International Trade Commission that led to the AD duty order on AFBs from Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Romania, Thailand, Singapore, and the U.K., Shaeffler responded to the ITC’s questionnaire, but declined to indicate to the ITC that it supported the AD petition.

Following the February 2008 - January 2009 AD administrative review of certain frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam, Vietnamese producer/exporters challenged the International Trade Administration’s use of zeroing in AD administrative reviews while having abandoned the practice in investigations, and multiple Vietnamese plaintiffs also challenged the ITA’s labor rate calculations; its surrogate values work-up and surrogate financial expense calculations; its denial of a request for revocation; and its rejection of a separate rate certification due to late filing.

The Justice Department has announced that Steve Kinder and his wife, Cornelia Joyce Kinder, and their two caviar companies, Kinder Caviar Inc. and Black Star Caviar Company, pleaded guilty to trafficking in and falsely labeling illegally harvested paddlefish. The two companies were in the business of exporting paddlefish eggs as caviar to customers in foreign countries.