Nigel Cory, former associate director of trade policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, has joined Crowell & Moring as a director, the firm announced. Cory will aid attorneys in the firm's international trade practices and other areas, the firm said.
Jacob Kopnick
Jacob Kopnick, Associate Editor, is a reporter for Trade Law Daily and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and International Trade Today. He joined the Warren Communications News team in early 2021 covering a wide range of topics including trade-related court cases and export issues in Europe and Asia. Jacob's background is in trade policy, having spent time with both CSIS and USTR researching international trade and its complexities. Jacob is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Public Policy.
U.S. Army intelligence analyst Korbein Schultz pleaded guilty Aug. 13 to conspiring to "obtain and disclose national defense information," illicitly exporting data related to defense articles to China, and conspiring to illegally export defense articles and bribery, DOJ announced. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each export-related charge.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Aug. 13 opinion again affirmed the president's ability to make trade-restrictive modifications to Section 201 safeguard tariffs. Judges Alan Lourie, Richard Taranto and Leonard Stark partially granted a group of solar cell exporters' motion for panel rehearing of its 2023 decision, which came to the same conclusion, so that the court could conduct a de novo review of the applicable statute, instead of reviewing whether the president's interpretation of the law was a "clear misconstruction" of the statute.
Bulgarian national Milan Dimitrov appeared Aug. 12 in a federal court for allegedly engaging in a scheme to violate U.S. export controls, DOJ announced. Extradited from Greece, Dimitrov is charged with conspiring with Russian citizen Ilias Sabirov and Bulgarian national Dimitar Dimitrov to procure "sensitive radiation-hardened integrated circuits" from the U.S. and export them to Russia via Bulgaria (see 2012210013).
The South Korean government urged the Court of International Trade to not confuse "disparity" with "disproportionality" in assessing the Commerce Department's de facto specificity finding on the Korean government's alleged provision of electricity below cost. Filing a reply brief on Aug. 12 in a case on the 2021 countervailing duty review on cut-to-length carbon-quality steel plate from South Korea, the Korean government said the fact that a few industries used a large amount of electricity doesn't establish de facto specificity (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00211).
The U.S. told the Court of International Trade that Southwest Airlines isn't entitled to keep Customs Passenger Processing Fees fees paid by its customers on canceled tickets. Filing a cross-motion for judgment on Aug. 13, the government argued that the airline's cancellation policy, which offers travel credits that Southwest then stores as profits if they go uncollected, can't usurp the law, which requires Southwest to "collect the fee and remit the fees collected to the Government" (Southwest Airlines Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00141).
Exporters Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. and C&U Americas argued in an Aug. 13 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade that the Commerce Department's differential pricing analysis is not allowed by the statute in antidumping reviews and is only permissible for AD investigations (Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00025).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 12 ordered exporter Risen Energy Co. to appear at oral argument in an antidumping duty case after the company waived its right to appear (see 2408020019). Risen originally brought suit to contest the 2017-18 AD review on solar cells from China, arguing that the Commerce Department failed to use the best information when setting surrogate values for the company's backsheet and ethyl vinyl acetate inputs (see 2305170049). The per curiam order from the court told Risen to appear at oral argument after the U.S. said it would appear (see 2408070003) (Risen Energy Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1550).
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 9 granted importer Blockstream USA Corp.'s bids to dismiss three of its own customs cases on the classification of its cryptocurrency miners. The court previously dismissed one of the cases for failure to prosecute after Blockstream didn't move to extend the time for the case to remain on the customs case management calendar. This dismissal was set aside after the company asked the court to help correct the error (see 2404050029). Counsel for Blockstream didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on why the company moved to dismiss the cases (Blockstream Services USA v. U.S., CIT #s, 22-00101, 23-00018) (Blockstream USA Corp. v. United States, CIT # 20-00149).
Russian-German national Arthur Petrov was extradited to the U.S., making his initial appearance in court Aug. 9 for allegedly committing export control violations, smuggling, wire fraud and money laundering, DOJ announced. Extradited from Cyprus, Petrov was charged for his part in a scheme to ship more than $225,000 worth of U.S.-sourced microelectronics to companies supplying weapons to the Russian military.