The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. moved to swap its lead counsel in a countervailing duty case after Bret Vallacher, former head attorney in the suit on the CVD investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan, left DOJ. The U.S. said Vallacher "is no longer employed by" the department but was not able to withdraw as principal counsel before leaving. Brendan Jordan was put forward by the government as the next lead counsel. Both appellants, led by Tau-Ken Temir, and defendant-appellees, led by Globe Specialty Metals, consented to the swap (Tau-Ken Temir v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
A recent ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit regarding a statute-of-limitations waiver supports defendant-appellee Katana Racing's arguments in a customs penalty suit, Katana Racing said in a notice of supplemental authority at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the present case, the Court of International Trade tossed the government's suit seeking over $5.7 million in unpaid duties on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China on the grounds that the importer properly revoked its statute of limitations waiver, making the lawsuit untimely due to the expired statute of limitations (see 2203280047) (United States v. Katana Racing, Fed. Cir. # 22-1832).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, during June 6 oral arguments, questioned countervailing duty petitioner Nucor Corp.'s claims against the Commerce Department's finding that the South Korean government did not provide a countervailable subsidy via its provision of electricity in the CVD investigation on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Responding to Nucor's argument that Commerce should have found the actual cost of electricity sold to the CVD respondents, Judge Raymond Chen said this "seems so unrealistically granular it doesn't make any sense" (POSCO v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1525).
Attorney Jon Yormick took 29 cases with him when he moved from Flannery Georgalis to create his own firm, Yormick Law LLC, his office confirmed with Trade Law Daily. Yormick began the process of filing notices of attorney substitutions in the cases, all of which are attached to the massive Section 301 litigation. The 29 cases involve 36 total companies that migrated with Yormick. The firm was founded on Jan. 1 as a relaunch of Yormick's small firm practice, last referred to as Law Offices of Jon P. Yormick Co., which existed from 1995-2019.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should disregard the government's procedural arguments in a case on whether Vandewater International's steel branch outlets fall within the scope of the antidumping duty order on butt-weld pipe fittings from China, importer Smith-Cooper International (SCI) argued in a reply brief (Vandewater International v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1093).
Three conservation groups moved to dismiss their suit at the Court of International Trade seeking to compel the Interior Department to decide whether Mexico is engaging in illegal trade and fishing of endangered wildlife. The groups ditched the suit after Interior determined Mexican nationals are violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which could lead to a ban on imports of Mexican wildlife (Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. United States, CIT # 22-00339).
The judicial and administrative decisions cited by U.S. and antidumping petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire to defend the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available against exporter Unicatch Industrial Co. do not apply to Unicatch's court challenge, Unicatch said in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Commerce relied on AFA against Unicatch for failing to submit a complete cost reconciliation in the form requested by the agency, hitting the exporter with a 78.17% dumping rate (Pro-Team Coil Nail Enterprise v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2241).
Solar cell exporters JA Solar Technology Yangzhou Co., Shanghai JA Solar Technology Co. and JingAo Solar Co. objected to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's order saying that it will reform the caption to designate the companies as appellees. JA Solar instead asked to remain a plaintiff since it supports appellant Risen Energy even though it did not itself file a notice of appeal. "Second, JA Solar will not be filing or joining any brief in this proceeding, nor does it intend to participate in oral argument," the brief said. The suit is challenging the Commerce Department's surrogate values for silver paste and use partial neutral facts available in the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on solar cells from China (see 2301050026) (Risen Energy Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1550).
The Court of International Trade's recent decision on the customs classification of frozen fruit mixtures supports the government's arguments in a customs spat on importer Second Nature Design's imports of dried botanical items used in home decor, the U.S. said in a notice of supplemental authority. Acknowledging that the trade court's recent opinion in Nature's Touch Frozen Foods v. U.S. is not final, the government nevertheless said that Judge Stephen Vaden's opinion backs its case (Second Nature Designs v. United States, CIT # 17-00271).