Domestic ball bearings producer New Hampshire Ball Bearing, Inc. sought to be awarded a share of AD duties as an “affected domestic party” for ball bearings imported from Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, and the U.K, under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, (CDSOA or Byrd Amendment). However, the Court of International Trade dismissed its complaint as the company, 12 years prior to CDSOA’s enactment, had declined to indicate its support for the AD petition in its response to ITC questionnaires.

In this case, U.S. Customs and Border Protection erroneously liquidated in 2008 a 2004 entry of wooden bedroom furniture from China made by Epoch Design LLC at the China-wide rate of 198.08% rather than the firm’s calculated rate of 6.65%. Epoch, however, failed to file a protest within 90 days¹ of liquidation, then failed to pay all liquidated duties prior to initiating a suit (it paid the duties four months after initiating its suit). For both reasons, the Court of International Trade concluded that Epoch’s complaint “must be dismissed.”

On January 3, 2012, the Justice Department announced that Maersk Line Limited has agreed to pay the government $31.9 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the U.S. in connection with overcharging for transporting cargo in shipping containers for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. This lawsuit was filed under the whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act.

The Justice Department has announced that Magyar Telekom Plc., a Hungarian telecommunications company, and its parent company, Deutsche Telekom AG, have agreed to pay a combined $63.9 million criminal penalty to resolve a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) investigation. The investigation concerned activities by Magyar Telekom and its subsidiaries in Macedonia and Montenegro to bribe government officials in those countries.

The Court of International Trade has ruled to dismiss a case in which C.B. Imports Transamerica Corp. sought a refund of a cash deposit it made on an entry of automotive safety glass from China that was subject to an antidumping duty order (A-570-867) at the time of entry. The CIT dismissed the case as it found C.B. Imports' refund claim was made after the statutory two-year limit and thus was time-barred.

Thai shrimp producer/exporters appealed the decision of the Court of International Trade upholding the refusal of the International Trade Administration to grant an offset for interest income on long-term financial assets when calculating dumping margins, in the February 2007 - January 2008 AD administrative review of certain frozen warm water shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, India, and Thailand. The Thai producers argued that the long-term financial assets on which they earned interest income was required to be held as collateral for credit lines used for day-to-day operating funds, and the ITA should therefore apply it as an offset to interest expense in the overhead expense ratio that the ITA calculates as a component of normal value (thereby reducing normal value and dumping margins).

On December 22, 2011, the American Trucking Associations filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to review the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s holding in ATA’s challenge to the Port of Los Angeles concession program requirements. Although ATA prevailed on the primary issue in the case, securing a ruling striking down the Port’s independent contractor ban, other components of the program were upheld which ATA is appealing.

The Court of International Trade has ruled, due to untimely claims, it cannot grant relief to two companies that sought refunds of EU beef hormone dispute duties assessed on merchandise entered after the duties were retroactively terminated. According to the CIT, the companies' complaints were filed more than two years after the action that triggered accrual of their claims -- which was the date CBP liquidated the entries and not the date of the CAFC's 2010 ruling that the retaliatory duties were terminated by operation of law in 2007.

The Justice Department has announced that Kexue Huang, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 87 months in prison and three years of supervised release on charges of economic espionage from Dow AgroSciences LLC to benefit components of the Chinese government and theft of trade secrets from a second company, Cargill Inc.

The Justice Department has announced that Ousama Naaman, a former agent for U.S. company Innospec Inc., was sentenced on December 22, 2011 to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine for his participation in a conspiracy to defraud the United Nations Oil for Food Program (OFFP) and to bribe former Iraqi government officials, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).