The Court of International Trade in a confidential June 18 decision sustained parts and remanded parts of the Commerce Department's second review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. The court gave the parties until June 25 to review the confidential information in the decision (YC Rubber Co. (North America) v. U.S., CIT # 19-00069).
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.
The EU General Court on June 19 rejected Russian businessperson Igor Rotenberg's bid to be removed from the EU's Russian sanctions list. Rotenberg was sanctioned for holding leadership positions in Russian companies SGM, Gazprom Drilling and Mostotrest and for his association with his father, oligarch Arkady Rotenberg, and with President Vladimir Putin.
Adam Safwat, a former deputy chief of DOJ's fraud section, has joined Foley Hoag as a partner in the white collar crime and government investigations practice, the firm announced. Safwat will be based in Washington, D.C., and will focus on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations, sanctions, political corruption and financial fraud, the firm said. Safwat most recently was a partner at Nelson Mullins.
International Trade Commission member Rhonda Schmidtlein became chairman of the ITC by operation of law, succeeding outgoing chair David Johnason, whose term expired on June 16, the commission announced. She was nominated to the ITC by President Barack Obama in 2013 and previously served as chairman from 2017 to 2018. Prior to joining the commission, Schmidtlein served as a consultant to the World Bank for two years and worked as the founding director of the Office of International Affairs created to implement the obligations of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.
Importer Vecoplan on June 17 dismissed one of its customs cases at the Court of International Trade regarding the classification of its grinding machines (Vecoplan v. United States, CIT # 20-00106).
The U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit scheduled oral argument for Sept. 16 at 9:30 a.m. on the two consolidated petitions for review challenging the constitutionality of the federal TikTok ban, said a clerk’s order June 17. TikTok and ByteDance challenge the ban on four constitutional grounds (see 2406070023). Their petition seeks a declaratory judgment that the ban violates the Constitution. It also seeks an order enjoining U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland from enforcing it (TikTok v. Merrick Garland, D.C. Cir. # 24-1113).
The Court of International Trade dismissed importer Greentech Energy Solutions' challenge to antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese solar cells to its Vietnamese solar cell entries for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Section 1581(i), the court's "residual" jurisdiction.
The World Trade Organization's published agenda for the Dispute Settlement Body's June 24 meeting includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on: antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports also are expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit on June 14 denied Albion Engineering Co.'s expedited motion to stay an injunction pending the appeal of Newborn Bros. Co.'s suit against Albion for unfair competition (Newborn Bros. Co. v. United States, 3rd Cir. # 24-1548).
CBP said in a customs ruling earlier this month that luxury goods sold between a related European exporter and U.S. importer weren't subject to restrictions on their use that barred the use of the transaction method. In addition, CBP excluded service fees between the companies from the actual price of the goods since the fees didn't pertain to the goods' importation, and the agency found that the relationship between the parties didn't preclude the use of the transaction value method to appraise the value of the goods.