The White House has nominated Julie Callahan, the assistant U.S. trade representative for agricultural affairs and commodity policy, to be chief agricultural negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Callahan previously held positions at the FDA and USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the July 17 Federal Register on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The International Trade Commission is seeking public input on remedies for its Section 337 investigation on imported organic light-emitting diode display modules (ITC Inv. No. 337-TA-1378), it said in a July 17 notice. The ITC initiated the investigation in 2023 based on allegations that BOE Technology Group and its subsidiaries misappropriated Samsung's trade secrets and unfairly imported organic LED displays designed with those secrets (see 2312060055). On July 11, the administrative law judge issued a final initial determination on violation of Section 337.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register July 17 on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CVD rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department is imposing preliminary antidumping duties of 93.5% on certain imports of Chinese graphite, a key material used in electric vehicle batteries.
On July 16, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service plans to remove "obsolete, unnecessary, and outdated provisions in title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulation," which includes removing regulations for temporary duties on imports of Canadian fresh fruit and vegetables when certain specified conditions are met, it said in a Federal Register notice. The change is effective July 18.
For the countries outside America's top 30 or so trading partners, the U.S. likely will apply either 10% or 15% tariffs, President Donald Trump said in a telephone interview July 16.
The U.S. opposed two importers' bid to have the Supreme Court hear their challenge to the president's ability to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has a chance to hear the case. The government argued that the high court shouldn't step in before either the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has had a chance to address the claims against the IEEPA tariffs, particularly since both courts are hearing the appeals on very expedited timelines (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).
The U.S. filed a complaint on July 15 in a case against importer Global Office Furniture and its owner Malcom Smith for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying duties on imported office chairs, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina announced. The case was originally filed in March 2020 by Sharon Joyce, former office manager for Global Office Furniture (United States v. Global Office Furniture, D.S.C. # 2:20-01223).