The draft text for curbing subsidies leading to overcapacity and overfishing released earlier in September received "broad support" from World Trade Organization members as the starting point for text-based negotiations, Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies talks, reported, the WTO said. Noting the text's warm reception at the fifth "Fish Week" talks, held on Sept. 18-22, Gunnarsson said the next Fish Week will be dedicated to a "collective reading of the text" so line-by-line modifications can be proposed. The next Fish Week is set for Oct. 9-13.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 25 issued its mandate in a case concerning a $5.7 million customs penalty suit against importer Katana Racing. In the opinion, the appellate court said the Court of International Trade improperly dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction (see 2308030034). The trade court said Katana properly revoked a statute of limitations waiver, making the U.S. government's suit untimely, but the appellate court said the statute of limitations is "not a jurisdictional time limit" and instead provides an "affirmative defense" that can be waived (U.S. v. Katana Racing, Fed. Cir. # 22-1832).
The Supreme Court of the U.S. on Sept. 13 extended the deadline for exporter Oman Fasteners to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in its case on then-President Donald Trump's expansion of the Section 232 duties to include steel and aluminum "derivative" products. The company now has until Oct. 20 to file the brief. Oman Fasteners said it was in the process of filing its own petition to the high court following importer PrimeSource Building Products' petition in its suit on the tariff expansion.
The Commerce Department improperly included sales made by exporter Megaa Moda in the calculation of normal value as part of the 2021-2022 review of the antidumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from India, petitioner Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee said in a Sept. 25 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee v. United States, CIT # 23-00202).
A protest approval relied on in a customs complaint from importer Under the Weather wasn't a "prior interpretive ruling" that CBP had to publish and revoke under 19 U.S.C. § 1625(c)'s notice-and-comment procedures before issuing a headquarters ruling on pop-up tents, the U.S. argued. Filing a partial motion to dismiss, the government claimed that only "interpretive determinations with prospective effect" qualify for the statute's "procedural safegurads" (Under the Weather v. United States, CIT # 21-00211).
US Rails Against Importer's 'Myriad of Unsupported' Claims on Classification of Steel Conduit Tubing
Importer Shamrock Building Materials laid out a "myriad of unsupported and unpersuasive arguments" against the Court of International Trade's finding that electrical conduit is properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 7306, the U.S. argued in a Sept. 22 reply brief. The government said the heading, which provides for "other tubes, pipes and hollow profiles" of iron or steel, exactly describes the electrical conduit, and that heading 8547, which covers "electric conduit tubing lined with insulating material," does not fit the bill (Shamrock Building Materials v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1648).
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai laid out her priorities for reforming the World Trade Organization, providing concrete options that the U.S. and other WTO members can take to reinvigorate the international trade forum. In a Sept. 22 speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Tai said that the biggest tenets of WTO reform revolve around "improving transparency," rebuilding the body's ability to negotiate new rules for new challenges and dispute settlement reform.
Elisa Solomon, trial attorney at DOJ's International Trade Field Office, will transfer to become a trial attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission effective Sept. 25, according to a U.S. notice at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Her last day at DOJ was Sept. 23. Solomon began working at DOJ in 2022 as a trial attorney, coming to the agency from Covington & Burling, where she was an associate in the white collar investigations and commercial litigation practices. She also served as a law clerk with Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Stanceu.
World Trade Organization members mulled over a draft statement on plastics pollution to be circulated at the 13th Ministerial Conference, during a Sept. 21 meeting of the Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade, the WTO said. Australia introduced the draft statement, saying that it expands on the first "draft zero" statement and outlines actions meant to "reflect the discussions held over the past two years."
The EU General Court on Sept. 20 rejected Russian businessman Alexey Mordashov's application to annul his sanctions listing, according to an unofficial translation. The court said the EU didn't err in finding that Mordashov is an influential businessman in sectors of the Russian government, rejecting his challenges to the process, reasoning and proportionality.