AD/CVD petitioner Magnesia Carbon Bricks Fair Trade Committee asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to speed up its appeal on the Commerce Department's decision to exclude seven types of bricks imported by Fedmet Resources Corp. from the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on magnesia carbon bricks from China. The petitioner said the relief it's seeking is "modest," and that a sped-up briefing schedule is needed to "prevent competitive harms" to the "domestic refractory-brick industry" that should be subject to "significant AD/CVD duties" (Fedmet Resources v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 26-1160).
A trial attorney at DOJ's international trade field office, Luke Mathers, has left the agency and joined Sandler Travis as an associate, according to his LinkedIn profile. Mathers joined DOJ in 2022 in the New York-based trade field office, where he worked on various customs and antidumping and countervailing duty matters. Prior to joining the agency, Mathers was an associate at Skadden.
An Indonesian jewelry company and its co-owner, along with two other employees, were charged last week with taking part in a scheme to evade over $86 million in customs duties on jewelry imports, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey announced. Two of the individuals, Indonesian national Icha Anastasia and Italian national Claudio Fogale, were arrested last week and each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud (United States v. PT Untung Bersama Sejahtera a/k/a UBS Gold, D.N.J. # 2:25-12158).
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
CBP illegally subjected importer Raymond Geddes & Company's pencils to antidumping duties on cased pencils from China, since the company's pencils are made in the Philippines, Raymond Geddes argued in a Nov. 14 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The importer said CBP improperly applied a scope ruling on a separate importer, School Specialty, to its goods (Raymond Geddes & Company v. United States, CIT # 25-00265).
The Commerce Department on Nov. 17 flipped its position on remand in a case on a new shipper review, finding that exporter Co May Import-Export Company didn't make a "bona fide sale" of subject merchandise during the review period (Catfish Farmers of America v. United States, CIT # 24-00126).
Antidumping duty respondent Oman Fasteners opened a lawsuit last week against its former counsel, Perkins Coie, for legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty in its representation of the exporter in AD proceedings on steel nails from Oman. Filing suit in Washington state court, Oman Fasteners centered on two alleged mistakes made by the Perkins Coie attorneys: the failure to submit a fully translated surrogate financial statement in the AD investigation and to meet a filing deadline in the sixth review of the AD order, which led to a total adverse facts available AD rate.
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 14 extended the deadline for interested parties to submit comments on proposed amendments to one of the court's practice rules. Comments that had been due by Nov. 24 now will be accepted through close of business on Dec. 5.
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 17 issued its mandate in the massive litigation on the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on China. The importers who challenged the tariffs didn't file an appeal of the matter to the Supreme Court prior to the issuance of the mandate. Last month, the court upheld the tariffs, finding them to be a valid exercise of authority under Section 307(a)(1)(C) (see 2509250028). The court said the statute's permission to "modify" Section 301 action where it's "no longer appropriate," allows the U.S. trade representative to ramp up the tariffs if the original action is "insufficient" to achieve its "stated purpose" (HMTX Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1891).