Ceratizit USA, a North Carolina-based tungsten carbide distributor, agreed to pay $54.4 million to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by "knowingly and improperly failing to pay duties owed on tungsten carbide products" from China, DOJ announced.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 19 denied exporter Fuzhou Hengli Paper Co.'s bid to add an Excel data file to the record in the company's case against the antidumping duty investigation on Chinese paper plates. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that Fuzhou Hengli failed to adhere to the Commerce Department's procedures, since the company only filed its submission "on the one-day lag system on a temporary basis in connection with the barcode of the non-final rebuttal brief" and never re-filed the submission "after one business day with the final rebuttal brief."
Taiwan opened dispute consultations with Canada at the World Trade Organization regarding Canada's tariff rate quotas and surtax on certain steel goods and its global duty on certain steel derivative goods, the WTO announced. The consultations request formally opens a WTO dispute and gives the parties 60 days to resolve it, after which it will be sent to adjudication before a panel.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court last month found that Mexico discriminated against non-Mexican steel conduit in government procurement through, among other things, state-owned bank loans, energy subsidies, "unfair transshipment schemes" and "permitting misclassification of steel conduit" (Wheatland Tube v. Foreign Country of Mexico, Pa. Cmwlth. # 496).
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. and importer Wanxiang America agreed to settle a customs penalty case against the importer in which the U.S. was seeking $97 million for unpaid antidumping duties on the company's car part entries. Counsel for Wanxiang America didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 18 denied an application for a temporary restraining order against the liquidation of entries made by various companies represented by Grunfeld Desiderio seeking refunds of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (Strato Technology Solutions v. United States, CIT Consol. # 25-00322).
As importers everywhere await the Supreme Court's final decision on the fate of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, more and more attorneys are counseling their clients to file preemptive lawsuits at the Court of International Trade to guarantee their right to a refund of the IEEPA tariffs.
The Commerce Department reasonably found that wheels made in a third country with a mix of Chinese and third-country parts are covered by the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on steel trailer wheels from China, the U.S. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 15 (Asia Wheel Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #s 25-1689, 25-1694).
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade: