The Commerce Department's finding that calcium glycinate is outside the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on glycine from India, Japan, Thailand and China was not backed by substantial evidence, AD/CVD petitioner GEO Specialty Chemicals argued in a Dec. 7 complaint at the Court of International Trade (GEO Specialty Chemicals v. United States, CIT # 23-00238).
Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit during Dec. 7 oral arguments sharply questioned importer Rimco's arguments that it didn't need to raise an Eighth Amendment challenge to its adverse facts available rate administratively at the Commerce Department before challenging it in court (Rimco v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2079).
The Court of International Trade doesn't have jurisdiction to hear importer Southern Cross Seafoods' challenge to the National Marine Fisheries Service's rejection of its application for preapproval to import Chilean sea bass, the court ruled Dec. 7. Judge Timothy Reif said that the agency's decision, issued under the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Convention Act of 1984 (AMLRCA), doesn't constitute an "embargo or other quantitative restriction," barring jurisdiction under Section 1581(i), the court's "residual" jurisdiction.
Robert Wise, a New York-based lawyer who helped manage luxury properties for sanctioned Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, was sentenced Dec. 5 to one year of house arrest followed by one year of probation. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil also levied a $100,000 fine against the lawyer, to be paid out in $8,333.33 monthly installments over the next year.
The U.S. charged Hans Maria De Geetere, a Belgian national, in two separate indictments for allegedly helping to illegally export "military-grade technology" from the U.S. to end-users in China and Russia, DOJ said. Along with the unsealing of the indictments in the U.S. district courts for the Eastern District of Texas and the District of Oregon, DOJ said the Belgian government arrested De Geetere, and others, and executed search warrants as part of the investigation (United States v. Hans De Geetere, E.D. Tex. # 4:19-cr-00207) (United States v. Hans De Geetere, D. Ore. # 3:23-cr-00374).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Liquified natural gas export project Magnolia LNG withdrew from a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club challenging the Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management approval of Magnolia LNG's and Golden Pass LNG Terminal's applications to increase their authorized LNG export volumes. Submitting its motion on Dec. 1 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Magnolia said it wanted to withdraw as a respondent-intervenor "because it has determined to move forward with a new application to Energy for authorization to export LNG to non-free trade nations" (Sierra Club v. U.S. Department of Energy, D.C. Cir. # 22-1217).
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 6 order postponed a hearing on Chinese exporter Ninestar Corp.'s motion for a preliminary injunction in the company's suit against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. The parties asked for a delay in the hearing while they negotiate a process for the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to consider a request for removal from the UFLPA Entity List by Ninestar (see 2312050023) (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
Textile gloves with a plastic coating on the palm and fingers are classifiable in the tariff schedule as gloves, not as articles of plastics, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a Dec. 6 opinion.
The convenors of e-commerce negotiations at the World Trade Organization -- Australia, Japan and Singapore -- are hoping the talks can conclude in early 2024, the WTO said. Unveiling a negotiating road map during a recent meeting, the three countries said the remaining few weeks of 2023 will focus "on bridging the gaps on outstanding issues, such as e-payments, telecommunications and information and communication technology products that use cryptography." Participants in the talks have now "parked" the negotiating text on privacy, the WTO added, raising the number of "parked," or temporarily concluded, topics to 13. Remaining topics include the "scope, exceptions and legal architecture of the future agreement."