Anti-forced labor group International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reject the government's request for a two-month delay in filing a reply brief in the group's suit seeking CBP to respond to a withhold release order petition to ban cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire. IRAdvocates claimed that every "major delay in CBP doing its statutory duty to ban the importation of cocoa harvested by child slaves condemns thousands of children to a continuation of the horrible condition they must endure" (International Rights Advocates v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-2316).
Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 4 questioned importer Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West) and the government regarding the tariff classification of frozen fruit mixtures. Judge Todd Hughes led the bulk of the questioning, pushing Nature's Touch on how to classify the goods if the court finds that the mixtures aren't food preparations, as claimed by the company, and how they should be classified instead under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 0811, which covers certain frozen fruit (Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West) v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-2093).
Amendments to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's practice rules officially took effect Dec. 1, the court announced. The changes incorporated all procedural requirements for petitioners for panel rehearings and rehearings en banc into one rule, though no substantive changes were made to the rule (see 2409050005). As a result of the change, CAFC updated its information sheet on rehearing petitions.
DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint Dec. 2 in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York, seeking the proceeds from the sale of a California music studio that are allegedly beneficially owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The complaint alleges that the proceeds, totaling $3.4 million, "are the proceeds of sanctions violations."
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department improperly used a period of review-wide allocation methodology for exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container's certification expenses, Sahamitr argued in its opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The company said it followed Commerce's instructions throughout the 2019-20 review of the antidumping duty order on steel propane cylinders from Thailand only for the agency to find that its methodology to be "distortive" (Sahamitr Pressure Container v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-2043).
The International Trade Commission regulation requiring a party to file an entry of appearance in order to establish standing to sue a commission decision before the Court of International Trade is lawful and in line with the relevant statute, the U.S. said. Replying to importer Pay Less Here's bid to keep its case on the ITC's critical circumstances determination on mattresses from Burma alive, the government said Pay Less doesn't have standing since it failed to file an entry of appearance (Pay Less Here v. United States, CIT # 24-00152).
The Commerce Department properly picked the benchmark data for two subsidy programs received by respondent Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials in the 2017-18 review of the countervailing duty order on aluminum foil from China, the Court of International Trade held in a decision made public Dec. 3.
Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsides negotiations at the World Trade Organization, released a revised draft text on the second wave of the fisheries talks on Nov. 29, the WTO announced. The text was circulated with a goal of wrapping up negotiations by the next General Council meeting, which is set for Dec. 16-17.
A dual U.S.-Russian citizen was arrested Dec. 2 for trying to export two small aircraft to Russia, said DOJ, which also seized the aircraft.